On Sunday Feb. 3 Bob Howell (along with Jim, Aleida, and Chet Weger) skied 
the Potholes route up to Trail Register at the end of the Brooklyn Lake 
Road, where the "Lost Lake" trail starts.  We skied back the upper part of 
the Potholes trail, then back the lower Brooklyn Lake Road and the main 
highway.  There was about 6 cm of relatively fresh powder -- just starting 
to get a little icy where it was in the sun.  The open slopes just above 
Green Rock are still pretty bare but the rest of the trail was good.

I added a couple of blue diamond stakes to help mark the route at the point 
where several tracks split and the Potholes route intersects the North Fork 
hiking trail (at ROUGHLY NAD27 13T 396500 4580100).  The route is well 
marked in this area with the blue ribbons, but given the confusion of 
crossing tracks, it could probably use another one or two blue diamond 
stakes at strategic points.  (There were two spare stakes still available 
in the tree near the lower end of the route.)

I dug a snow pit at NAD27 13T 0396762 4579987, (about 20 m S of the one 
from Jan. 27) at elevation 10440 ft on one of the open slopes near the part 
of the trail NE of the open air chapel.  This was a 19 deg. slope facing 96 
deg (E).  The air temperature was -4C, with clear sky, and calm wind.  The 
snow depth was 110 cm., 6 cm more than last time.  It was possible to 
discern a few more layers than last time (which changes the layer numbering 
given below), but the overall structure was similar.  The least stable 
layer was still the "3 finger" layer just below the windslab -- called #9 
in this column, followed by the lower 3 finger layer here called #5.  The 
layers below that seemed a little harder than last week.


  #  Height Temp   Layer comments Hardness   Snow grain structure
      (cm)   (C)
----110---------------------------------------------------------------
11                 fresh snow   fist       1   mm crystals
----105 --------------------------------------------------------------
10                 wind slab    pencil     0.3 mm rounded
----103 --------------------------------------------------------------
  9  100    -11                  3 fingers  0.5 mm faceted
---- 94 --------------------------------------------------------------
  8   90    -10                  1 finger   0.5 mm rounded
---- 89 --------------------------------------------------------------
  7                              2 finger   0.3 mm rounded, some 
facets
---- 85 --------------------------------------------------------------
  6   80     -8                  2 finger   0.5 mm rounded, some facets
---- 77 --------------------------------------------------------------
  5                              3 finger   0.5 mm rounded, slightly elongated
---- 70 --  -7 -------------------------------------------------------
  4   60     -5                  2 finger   1   mm rounded
---- 57 --------------------------------------------------------------
      50     -4                  2 finger   1   mm rounded
  3   40     -3
      30     -2
---- 28 --------------------------------------------------------------
  2   20     -1                  1 finger   1.5 mm rounded
      10     -1
----  6 --------------------------------------------------------------
  1                 ice          pencil     3 mm but very well bonded (ice)
----  0 ---  0 -------------------------------------------------------


Note that part of the slightly steeper gradient between 60 and 90 cm is 
apparently due to the fact
that this area became shaded as I was working my way up the column taking 
readings.  Repeating
several measurements in the transition region showed a change of about 1 or 
2 deg. C.

In general the temperature gradient seems very smooth throughout the 
column, until you get within
a few cm of the surface.

Shovel shear test.  Working down through the pack:
   Moderate force for failure at 100 cm (in soft snow of what is here 
called layer #9)
   Moderate to high force for failure at several intermediate layers 
between 100 cm and 70 cm
   Moderate force for failure at  70 cm (bottom of the soft snow in what is 
here called layer #5)

With the Rutschblock test it took several jumps to produce a failure at ~96 
cm in the soft layer #9.
After that slid, additional repeated HARD jumps produced a failure at 75 
cm, in the soft layer #5.


The car counts were as follows.
Note -- this breaks down the counts into smaller regions, as requested on
the new count forms from the Snowy Range Winter Use Group.
Also, note this is Super Bowl Sunday.

                          ------- 9:15 AM -------     ------ 4:10 PM ----
                             with    without        with    without
                           trailers  trailers     trailers  trailers
  Corner Mountain Lot         0         0             0        2
  Little Laramie Lot          2         0             0        1

  Below Barber Lk Rd          5         0            14        1
  B. Lk Rd to Cattleguard    10         0             1        0
  Cattleguard to Turnaround  27         2            12        1
  Green Rock Picnic Gnd. Lot  0         5             0        2
  P. G. to Snowy Range Lodge  9         2            12        4

  Total                      53         9            39       11