Rain on snow for first day. Multiple small avy paths on East face of Fresno in steep terrain noted on second day. Colleagues reported a large whumpf near 3000' on third day.
Observation: Summit
Location: Manitoba low elevation
3 night stay near base of Manitoba, where trees start to open up. Stayed in low elevation terrain, wasn’t able to go up high :( Max elevation was 2100′.
Observer Comments
Weather
First day was raining trending towards mixed forms at night. Light snow the next morning then no precip with warm temps later on in day, overcast, Moderate winds higher up with obvious wind effect in the alpine (funneled down valleys but generally from N or E). Sky opened up when the sun set and was clear overhead for the second night with below freezing temps. Third day had super enjoyable weather, mostly clear sky with a few cirrus clouds overhead, light winds. Partly cloudy for night building to Broken skies the next day.
Snow surface
Fist & second day: wet slop. ski pen ~10cm
Third day: Freezing conditions allowed snow to freeze and a clear sky overhead with colder temps made super small (<0.5mm?) Near surface facets ( about 1-2cm thick) with surface hoar growing on top (1mm). Wind effect in exposed areas. Colleagues reported larger suface hoar ~4mm, on top of deeper soft snow in higher terrain.
Snowpack
Informal/general ob, near 2000': thin NSF on top of ski supportable MF crust with basal facets near ground. Curious to see both how high the crust reaches and if faceting was occuring below the crust once formed.