Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2408 m
- Slope Angle
- 32°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No obvious signs of instability. Weak faceted snow plagues many areas, especially at mid elevations and where the snowpack is shallow, but it appears dormant for the time being.</p>
I found varied snow structures and test results today up in Steep Hollow. This short video shows a propagating failure in an extended column test, with the failing layer faceted snow from early January....
Faceted snow in my Steep Hollow snowpit at around 7900' on a north-northeast facing slope.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Wind slabs appeared fairly well bonded today and cornices weren't very sensitive. I dropped one refrigerator-sized cornice chunk onto a steep drifted north facing slope and only produced a small new snow sluff.. Drifting from overnight southeast winds will probably build new wind slabs and thicken existing slabs in lee north and northwest facing terrain. </p> <p>My experiences with faceted snow have mostly been bad, and despite lack of much related avalanche activity this winter, there are many areas plagued by the stuff. It's worst where the snow cover is shallow, like in the trees or along exposed ridge lines, but appears widespread at mid elevations and east of the Bear River Crest in the northern and eastern parts of the Logan Zone. The weak layers lie dormant for now but might be reactivated by a sudden addition of weight or a rapid rise in temperature, and both scenarios are possible in coming weeks as we head into springtime.</p>
Around a foot of new snow blown into upper elevation flats since Sunday..... Only a few inches of new snow on a supportable sun-crust on south facing slopes. Pretty nice powder conditions in sheltered shady terrain...