Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Some cracking was seen over the past two days.</p>
Generally weak snow, step off of your skis and you go to the bottom. The near surface facets are under a thin crust on sun exposed slopes and very localized.
Video showing 110 cm of total snow at 8800 ft on a 30 deg. NE slope. I could not get a fracture or propagation with ECT but with a shovel shear the whole block comes out on the large basil layer facets. Also seen is a test slope and the failure of an 8 inch slab on near surface facets below a thin crust. The new snow today was dense and I would be concerned about this tipping the balance with regards to the PWL failing producing deep slides.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>As seen in the video, I did not get any results with ECT but the entire column came out with a sheer. With the next snow load coming in I would be concerned about being at the tipping point with regards to slab and failure. Super weak snowpack in the Steam Mill area, weaker than I have seen in the Ogden Mts. recently. </p> <p>On East slopes as seen in the last part of the video, there is a very thin sun or melt crust with near surface facets under this crust. Cracks and test slopes failed here. </p>
Up at the Steam Mill yurt for the past three days. 2 inches yesterday and 2 inches by 1pm today (1/29/21), reasonably light density above 7500 ft. We were able to make turns on 20-25deg slopes and avoided upper elevation wind loaded slopes.