Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We were able to get cracking in the skintrack in the new snow from today's storm, fracturing primarily on top of yesterday's storm snow. There was quite a bit of wind transport both in deposition during the storm and redeposition from the earlier storm snow (see photo #1 below).</p>
One of the biggest safety hazards we observed today was shallowly-buried obstacles. The storm snow from these two small systems came in quite dense and heavy initially, which means that it is the perfect density to disguise rocks, logs, cables, metal pilings, etc. that you may find in upper LCC, even with very shallow depth. Keep in mind that if you're planning to travel on solars, sharks are a widespread problem.
Photos:
#1: Wind-scouring (left) and wind-loading (right). Keep in mind this slope was entirely dirt before these storms.
#2: A non-snow hazard: now-exposed old cables, mining equipment, pilings, etc.
#3: Cracking in the second storm snow, on top of a slicker surface of refrozen snow from the first storm.
#4: While slabs proved a bit more stubborn than we anticipated due to the density of the snow, this was a small skier-triggered pocket.
#5: The debris from the wind-loaded pocket.
#6: We made a comment that it felt like we were skiing in October due to the coverage. Does it count as early-season skiing for the 26-27 season? You be the judge.
Snowpack
The first storm this week deposited fresh hot, heavy snow under low-hanging clouds, which contributed to greenhousing. Warmer temps led to this snow causing a wet avalanche cycle. This snow became wetted in many locations before temperatures dropped heading into the second pulse. The second storm that arrived this morning came in much colder, with freezing levels starting 2000' lower than the first storm. Total HST in sheltered terrain, near 10,000' in upper LCC was 28in.
The main instability we observed today as the second storm blew in was new, colder snow/graupel mix building into slabs on leeward terrain. This was primarily running on top of refrozen snow from the first storm, with occasional step-downs to the new/old interface from our period of high pressure.The wind was certainly sculpting terrain and making drifts that were quite sizeable (>4 feet deep), especially given how little snow was available for transport before these systems. The denser nature on the drifted snow is making even slabs a bit more stubborn to trigger, however they are easy to find.
With Nikki's photos of upper LCC before these two storms, most all snow on solars we traveled was from this week's two systems.