Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Above 7000ft or so, things firmed up a bit, leading to the occasional crack (not more than 1-1.5m in front of the skis) and reactive test slopes, all largely soft slabs. However, I did trigger a small avalanche (NNE 7400ft D1 wind slab 10cm down at interface) that propagated much farther than I anticipated, cracking about 75ft along the ridgeline (submitted a separate avalanche report for this). Cornices and wind slabs were both forming from obvious snow transport.</p>
An example of a cornice stomp that broke out a small pocket.
Snowpack
About 1" of fresh from yesterday's snowfall. Southerly aspects featured a breakable +/-5cm melt freeze crust below the new snow. The most sheltered terrain was still enjoyably soft but heavy, requiring some effort to find low density powder.
Pretty much everything else had surface wind effects of some kind, 1-10cm deep, from barely noticable wind skin to 4F soft slab that was reactive on test slopes. Ridges had cornices developing, additional slab formation, and firmer snow, mostly 1F with P in a couple places.