Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Lots of new snow and lots of wind deposited snow on what seemed to be all aspects.
We walked roughly 4 miles on and off the closed unplowed road, mostly on flat terrain. Anything with even a few degrees of pitch toward the north was consistently produces large heart stopping collapses. There was some discussion of skiing the south facing aspects, but a hasty ECT dissuaded us otherwise. That is not to say that everything in the area is showing such poor snowpack structure, and there are steeper aspects where the new snow fell onto bare dirt, but given our short time in the area it wasnt worth doing the work necessary to seek these places out.
two pits were dug within a small gully exposed to a lot of wind.
Pit 1: NE facing 10,400' ECTPV - at the ground
Pit 2: SW facing 10,400' ECTP10 - thin layer above old metlfreeze crust
Avalanche: NE facing 10,400' - approx. 50 meters from the NE facing pit. Did not investigate, wasnt worth going deeper into the gully.
My apologies for the lack of resolution in my measurements. It was cold/windy and my young dog isnt a fan of me taking the time necessary to be more thorough.
I do feel that it is still important enough to share these results and provide some info moving forward regarding this well travelled but lesser reported on snowpack.