Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: East face
Date of Observation: 12/03/2020
Name: Alan Bernholtz
Subject: Mt. Baldy
Aspect: East
Elevation: 12,400
Avalanches:
No avalanches were served but we did get a few collapses in isolated wind deposited snow on the approach. Very specific terrain features
Weather: Clear, cool, and moderate west winds on the summit
Snowpack: Variety of snow surfaces and depth. We experienced all kinds of snow conditions (except deep powder). At he deepest point the couloir held around 70 cm of snow but again, was a wide variety of depths. There was wind loaded areas and wind stripped areas. We found a few distinct crusts. A sun crust lower in the pack and wind board closer to the upper end of the pack and the surface was stiff from wind and sun. (Sounds horrible right but it was too bad) There were facets sitting on the ground, could possibly have been depth hoar but we did get too into checking it out but it felt well developed.
Mid mountain was scalloped shallow snowpack with near surface facets forming. The low revelation we found melt freeze supportable on south aspect. Yes, we hit rocks too.
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