Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
The wind was forming isolated slabs in middle elevation terrain, but they were relatively small. We didn't see any signs of instability where the new snow was not obviously drifted. Isolated 5-15' cracks in obviously wind-loaded middle elevation terrain near 9200'
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20s
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 5500' at 5 PM
- Recent Snowfall
- Storm=55-60cm HN24=35-40cm
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Snowing S1 to S3 from 1:30-4:30 PM. Moderate SW wind at/near exposed middle elevation ridges around 9000-9200'.
Snowpack
The old interface (3/12) was a very rough crust on SE, and the new snow did not want to shear on that interface at all (hand tests, ski cuts above tracks). The 3/12 interface was rough on E aspects, but not as bad as on SE. I didn't do any hand tests today on NE aspects that lacked the crust, but it didn't shear cleanly or behave as a slab when cutting above ski tracks, etc. There were no clean shears or obvious weaknesses within the 2 feet of recent storm snow. Some wind press in exposed S-SE-E terrain above 8800'.
Avalanche
There were a couple of small natural slab avalanches (D1) along HWY 75 just south of Galena Lodge, between Coyote and Owl Ck on the east side of the road. NW-SW aspects near 7200-7400'.