Left Peak Castle Lake

If skiing dust on breakable crust is your thing, pay a visit to Castle Lake. You won't be disappointed. If it's not your thing, then you may want to stick to Bunny Flat or Grey Butte for your back country skiing fix until we receive more snow. A rain crust exists across all aspects and most elevations in the Castle Lake area. Rain crust was observed up to the top of left peak (6200'). Crust varies from supportable to breakable.

Castle Lake road is plowed and cindered, though it remains icy. Bathrooms are shoveled out.

Quick test pit was dug on north aspect. CT7; Sudden Planar and ECTP5; Resistant Planar failures were observed down 14 cm (5.5 in), just below the rain crust on a density break. Snowpack overall did not yield any concerning instabilities. Old faceted layer below the 12/23 layer is now rounded and moist. Total snow depth is 242 cm (95 in, 8 ft), new snow after 1/8/17 rain event is 71 cm (28 in, 2.3 ft), and total storm snow from 1/6/17 is 90cm (35 in, 3 ft).

No signs avalanches were observed, though it appeared that a cornice fall had occurred along the ridge of middle peak. Wind loading and large cornices were observed on N and NW aspects.