Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Travel mid afternoon in the Catherine’s area. Strong wind transporting snow on to all aspects. Poor structure observed on S, SW, & NE above 10k. </p>
With the upcoming storm I wanted to check out the current snow surfaces and structure new snow will be falling on.
S at 10,100. HS 30cm with a a variety of crusts on top with some areas wind scoured and others wind blown pow . Bottom 5cms at the ground were faceted.
NE @ 10,200. HS 55cm. Top was a wind skin with blown pow on top. Bottom 15cms was facets.
While large patches of S facing have melted out across the top of LCC, where there is snow there is poor structure. On the polar aspect of the compass, coverage was significantly better but with a much larger faceted layer at the bottom of the snowpack.
With snow totals already trending slightly down for this first wave of this incoming storm it will be interesting to see if enough of a slab forms for us to start getting avalanches tomorrow.