Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The southwest winds were a bit gusty at times, but I did not see a lot of wind transported snow going on where I traveled. The big red flag which has been the case all season is the poor snowpack structure that continues to collapse and crack. I was getting several fairly large collapses traveling around on the north side of Bald Mountain. I was not finding much of a stiff slab, although the new snow and wind has stiffened things up some. </p>
I experienced several collapses and cracking as I traveled around the north side of Bald Mountain. This area is still thin, shallow and rocky with very weak snow near the ground.
The snow coverage on the north side of Bald Mountain is still on the thin side.
Looking over at Lofty and Mt. Marsell, the south facing slopes are nearly bare.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The persistent weak layer is still collapsing where the snowpack is thin and rocky and the little bit of new snow and wind has increased the sensitivity some.</p> <p>I did not observe a lot of wind drifting while I was out there, but given the new snow and strong winds when the front moved in, some fresh wind drifts are possible. </p>
Amazing how just a few inches of new higher density snow can improve the conditions. Not a real game changer out there, but the denser snow and quite a bit of grauple softened the surface snow and made for some acceptable turning out of the wind.