Observation type
Snowpack

Observer
Philipp Arndt

Keep me anonymous if published
no

Location (general area)
Big Draw Bowl, San Gorgonio Wilderness

Latitude
34.10573

Longitude
-116.83955

Date (yyyymmdd)
20260221

Time
15:15

Road conditions to area

Temperature

Sky
Scattered clouds (3/8 to 4/8)

Wind speed
not observed

Wind direction
S

Wind direction in degrees

Slope aspect
North

Aspect in degrees

Slope angle
approx. 30 degrees

Elevation
10120 ft

Snow depth
~60cm above hard ice crust

Boot/ Ski penetration
minimal

Precipitation
None

Activity, recent avalanches
No

Brief description

Whumphing noises, shooting cracks. collapsing
no

Rapid warming
no

Obvious avalanche path
no

Terrain trap
no

Comment
We ski toured the San Gorgonio area from South Fork overnight Feb 21-22, 2026. We skinned up from the start of the gated service road from Jenks Lake Road towards Poopout Hill, and set camp between Charlton Peak and Dry Lake. On our way in, we did not observe any recent avalanches or signs of instability in the snowpack, despite the recent storm. 

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THIS OBSERVATION:
We proceeded to Big Draw bowl and at 3:15PM dug a pit on a small test slope with northern aspect, where wind loading from the recents storms was obvious. We encountered the previously reported ice layer at about 60cm below the surface and did not dig much deeper due to the extremely hard, frozen layer below. The wind-deposited snow sitting atop this ice layer was about 1F hardness throughout. An extended column test in this pit yielded no results, indicating that at least in this location the recent snow had bonded well to the bare ice layer below.
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We continued up towards the north east face of Jepsen, where at the base of the NE chutes we encountered some discontinuous areas with poorly-bonded, up to ~3in thick wind slabs that broke off when stepping above the skin track. 

We dug a second pit where this slab was present (see separate submitted observation for details; ECTP 22 on this top layer). Since this layer was discontinuous and not too reactive, we decided to proceed with caution, up the northeast chute of Jepsen, while monitoring this layer. Based on stepping above the skin track during kick turns, this slab remained present in small, isolated areas only all the way up to the summit, and did not noticeably increase in thickness or appear to be any more reactive at higher elevations. As expected, the conditions skiing down the NE chute of Jepsen were variable und not very pleasant but the skiing became better lower down in the bowl and in the low-angle trees towards the campsite where some of the snow had remained cold and soft. 

In the morning of 2/22, we skied the treed and up to ~30 degrees steep north-east aspect to the east of Charlton (see attached map), where the snow had largely remained cold, soft and pleasant to ski despite the recent significant warming. 

We skied out via the summit of Charlton, the NW-facing slope towards just below Dollar Lake Saddle (already somewhat variable from melting and re-freezing the day prior) and Alto Diabolo. On the treed northern aspects of Alto Diabolo we already found very variable conditions from melting and refreezing, and the lower half was low-tide conditions with rocks hiding in the soft snow and plenty manzanita/bush traps towards the bottom. The service road had just barely enough coverage to ski back to the car in the afternoon. 

Note that due to the rapidly warming weather that is also forecasted to continue throughout this week, conditions will likely change drastically from what we observed on our tour. 

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Extended Column Test in this location yielded no results

Our entire route, with the location of the pit