Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
Yesterday one of our biggest takeaways was the amount of wind-loading and wind-transported snow, especially at upper elevations. My partner and I changed our travel plan early in the day as we didn't like the amount of snow being transported by the wind. Our ski quality greatly improved as we moved into more protected zones, along with our security. Although we were able to intentionally ski-cut small test slopes, we never felt over exposed to triggering large avalanches.
It was easy to find test slopes to intentionally release small wind slabs on steep rolls.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Skies started out in the AM with few clouds, and by the end of the day, the sky was overcast. Winds were variable, but consistently blowing in the moderate category, especially at upper elevations. No new snow fell during the day.
Snowpack
The most recent storm snow seems to be bonding well to the old crusts found on many aspects and elevations. We didn't conduct any formal snowpack tests, but it hand pits the new snow was difficult to pull away from the old snow surfaces.
Avalanche
With the amount of wind loading the snowpack was nearing the tipping point, but we did not observe any natural avalanches larger than a D1. At upper elevations, it seemed obvious that you could trigger a wind slab on a variety of aspects as the winds were swirling, top-loading, and cross-loading many slopes.