Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Fresh wind drifts that were easily cracking out up to a foot deep where the gusty northwest winds had drifted onto mainly east facing slopes, but much of the high elevation slopes that I observed had lots of snow that looked to be impacted by the winds. </p>
Some fresh wind drifts this morning up along the Bald Mt, Murdock Peak area. The west and northwest winds from yesterday and gusty winds today created these drifts cracking about a foot deep when I stepped out on them. These were mainly on slopes facing east, but there has been quite a bit of wind and many slopes looked like they had lots of drifted snow. I was keeping to very small and low angle safe slopes with no chance of any bad out come while I was stomping around. You can see how rocky it still is and not worth getting injured.
The high north facing terrain has started to fill in some, but rocks, stumps and bushes are just thinly covered and not a good place to get caught up in something. With quick easy access to places like this off the highway it is easy to get drawn to these spots.
At around 10,000' I measured about 70-75cm or close to 28" of snow with 10" of new snow from yesterday that fell on a thin but somewhat firm crust that was the old snow surface. This might be a layer to watch going forward if any weak snow develops around it. Overall though I felt the snow pack looks pretty decent for this early.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The new snow and gusty winds from a west and northwest direction created some somewhat sensitive drifts that cracked when I walked along the windy ridgelines. With a drop in wind speeds these should settle out. </p>
Storm totals looked to be around 8-10" above 9,000'. At the north slope trailhead only 2-3" Nice medium to slightly high density snow which is helping to fill in terrain, but a fair amount of wind yesterday and today.