Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/03/2019
Name: Sam Roberts
Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,000′-11284′
Avalanches: None
Weather: The day started as mostly overcast with a few flakes flying and a slight wind coming in from the west. As we skinned the clouds began to break and the wind remained with the occasional gust up to about 10mph. The decrease of cloud coverage saw an increase in sunlight and the temperature rose quickly from around -5 degrees C to about +1 degrees C by noon.
Snowpack: VERY THIN. Overall the glades are a 100% no-go and I would not recommend them to any friends or family just yet. We went up anyway. The skin track is the usual track but with many more logs and bushes in the way. We skinned until we reached the rim of red lady bowl the went west into the glades for a pit. The pit was just as we expected from the skin up, shallow. Snow totals ranged from 25-45 cm total in a E-SE-S facing gully at 11284′. There were 2 distinct layer, the first being the last storm snow that consisted of rounded grains of fist hardness (with the basal 2-3cm developing into facets) ranging from 20-40cm below a 2-4cm thick sun crust. Above the sun crust was 3-5cm of fresh snow that had been blown in by the wind. No test were conducted, the only reactivity I saw was the 2cm sun crust cracking and sliding on top of the storm snow. This quickly degrading new snow under that sun crust could cause problems whenever this area gets more snow.