Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No red flags, other than fresh wind loading. No recent avalanches noted. Only some minor wet activity and rollerballs likely from Friday.</p>
Snowpit and ECT: 4 feet (120 cm) total depth. ECT (22) on NE aspect, 8100', 30 degree slope. Not the cleanest ECT, but demonstrates the cohesiveness of the slab (Thanksgiving storm) over a 6" (15cm) layer of weak facets. Slab was F for top few inches, then trended 4F to 1F with greater depth. Facets were F to 4F.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Looking into the upper Cutler Basin, it was easy to see the ripples indicative of wind affected snow. I imagine there were some spots today where you could have kicked off some small to medium slabs within the new snow, but we didn't find any.</p> <p>We were able to find about 6 inches of old faceted snow on NE aspects from about 8,000' and higher. In general, there seems to be a lot of vegetation poking through this layer, and the facets appear to be gaining strength. The Thanksgiving snow has formed a cohesive slab above this layer, where it exists.</p>
Skied 0630-1030. Found a mixed bag of surface conditions, but was primarily wind affected, punchy snow above about 7,000'. Isolated and sheltered areas had soft snow. Below 7,000', on E and SE aspects, snow was damp and spongy and skied more like spring conditions. Got some fresh rollerballs going on a few slopes. Total snow depth seemed to be about 24-30" at the mid and upper elevations, with more in wind loaded areas and shady aspects.
I also skied on Friday morning and found soft snow above 7,500', damp and spongy snow between 7,000 and 7,500' and curb-and-gutter breakable crust below 7,000'. Conditions on Saturday seemed much improved, as Thursday's new snow had more time to consolidate into a more skiable layer below 7,000'.
Travel was relatively easy, but still lots of stumps and obstacles sticking out, and thin/rocky areas at lower elevations.