Quick report
- Aspect
- East
- Red Flags
- Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2591 m
Snow started in earnest around 4 pm.
Still lots of good skiing on SW aspects below 30 degrees.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Throughout the day while breaking trail, I experienced nearly a dozen collapses on slopes facing SW, S through E. In two different pit locations, the November snow at the bottom of the snowpack is faceted on these same aspects. I'm not sure which weak layer was failing in these collapses as several locations had a fairly stiff midpack overlying the November facets. About 20-30 cm down from the surface, buried surface hoar was readily observable and produced failures, albeit without propagation in snowpit tests. About 30-40 cm down, there also seemed to be some buried near-surface-facets as well, but these were harder to clearly identify. </p> <p>Lots of evidence of recent wind loading in the last 24 hrs- e.g. skin tracks filled in, fluting near ridgelines, and small cornices. However, for most of the day, the winds were light.</p>