Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>On a 38+ degree slope we did a little ski cut that created a sluff that entrained more snow and went faster than we would have anticipated, and we were glad we did it first before skiing our slope. Not dangerous per se, but in the wrong spot it could be sub-optimal (ie there was probably enough momentum to carry one somewhat uncontrollably for a ways; bad if one didn't want to be carried some ways). </p> <p>There was also just enough wind-affect on the ridges (ie hard wind jack on the ridgelines) that we weren't comfy dropping into the more-exposed 38+ leeward sides that didn't lend themselves to safe ski cutting. May have been fine, but the snow is fast enough that less-steep pitches are plenty fun so it wasn't "worth" pushing it onto potentially windslab-loaded steeper, more-exposed slopes. </p>
With the cold temps of the weekend it seems that the new snow of Friday - that fell on top of the wet heavy stuff - is "drying out" already so it's starting to deconsolidate (a very technical term) somewhat quickly and therefore creating the propensity for sluffing, as per Drew's forecast this morning.