Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Rapid Warming
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Isolated cracking along ridge tops, mostly near cornice lines. Isolated soft windslab development on the lee aspect of upper elevation ridge tops, however we did not observe any notable slab avalanche activity. </p>
We started our day around 6:00am from the hellgate condominiums parking lot(8400') with the car thermometer reading 11F. We traveled up to cardiff pass and found new light density snow with depths 6-8", relatively unaffected by wind below the ridgetops. limited wind slab development on the ridge tops meant occasional cracking, however it was mostly a non-issue with the large majority of the new snow being right-side-up. Early in the morning the loose dry avalanche issue was manageable with careful skiing, but significant in consequantial terrain. My concerns later in the day were the rapid warming of the surface snow, and the effect this warming would have on fresh cornices along ridge tops, which could easily initiate a loose dry avalanche. The skiing was good, if you could stay on top! As for tomorrow, there was significant AST and transport observed today, which would raise my index of suspicion for wind slab given the forecasted winds. warming will be an issue tomorrow as well.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>approximately 8" of new light density snow was poorly bonded to a slick, hard bed surface. Loose dry avalanches were entraining lots of snow and moving fast but not far, although I imagine this changed as the surface snow warmed. these avalanches were certainly enough to knock you off your feet, and the bed surface would make self arrest nearly impossible. As this snow settles I would expect it to sluff with less power, however it will still be suceptible to warming in the next few days.</p> <p>Snow surfaces became damp on the south aspect by 9:30-10:00am and were exhibiting wet loose characteristics. These would likely bring more power and consequence to the dry sluffing we found earlier in the day.</p>
Average new snow depths from 7-8" of light density powder snow, with wind drifts 3-4 feet in depth along the ridge-tops. By 9:30AM snow surfaces on southerly aspects were becoming damp and exhibiting wet loose avalanche characteristics.