Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Elevation
- 2865 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Wind was the most obvious red flag today. We were able to trigger a very small wind pocket in an area with thin snow and heavy loading.</p> <p>I didn't check poor snow pack structure because by Uinta or last year standards, the snow pack seemed reasonable. For example, we didn't find substantial depth hoar. See comments below re: the persistent weak layers.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Heavy snow plus lots of wind is a surefire recipie to create unstable wind slabs. Trend will increase this evening with continued snow, then decrease over time.</p> <p>We observed a thin layer of facets about 30cms deep. This didn't produce dramatic clean shears or anything but still demands some caution, particularly during periods of loading from new snow. Sometimes these layers can be tricky to find in quick hand pits - we missed it initially.</p> <p> </p> <p>There were also some facets right at the ground but there seemed to be less than normal and they also didn't produce dramtic results.</p>
Snow was relatively dense where exposed to the wind. There was also sort of a light rime or something that fell for a short period of time. This didn't really affect skiing but was noticeable.
Snow was also not very deep and it was common to scrape a few rocks during the descent. There were also occasional weak spots around rocks that would cause you to sink in a bit.