Quick report
- Cracking
- Observed
The October 28 through 30 storm dropped around one to two feet of snow in this area. This new snow is right-side up, or denser deeper down, and lighter on top. The only cracking that I encountered was in wind-drifted terrain features. Southwesterly winds early in the storm built drifts on northerly slopes, but today's westerly winds moved snow onto easterly-facing terrain as well. I chose to avoid travel on a steep northerly-facing slope near 12,000 feet where I encountered a stiffer, hollow-feeling snow surface.
Weather
Light to moderate snowfall (up to an inch an hour) most of the day with overcast to obscured skies. Mid-day winds shifted to the west, then the northwest. About three inches of very low-density snow fell throughout the day.
Snowpack
Six to eight inches of snow in the valley bottom increased to over two feet near treeline. The storm started very warm and I found a prominent rain crust at the bottom of storm snow up to 11,600 feet. I dug on several northerly-facing slopes near and above treeline and snowpack tests produced no results (ECTX).
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 12000 ft
Poor visibilty prevented views into many start zones, but I saw numerous small debris piles from earlier in the storm. These small slides generally stopped high in the track, and none looked large enough to bury a person.