Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Cracking in fresh wind drifts and remotely-triggered wind drift that propagated to a cornice fall.</p>
Strong winds were the issue today, with widespread cracking. The fresh wind drifts were reactive because they were forming on top of weaker snow at the snow surface: some surface hoar, near-surface facets, and stellars that were preserved during this period of cold weather.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Strong winds from the southwest were drifting snow on mostly leeward aspects facing north through east, but strong winds such as this can work around terrain and I was also finding some dense drifts on west aspects. Fresh drifts will be found along exposed ridges, but also well down off of ridgelines.</p> <p>On NW/N/NE/E/SE aspects where there is a PWL problem, drifting will create an additional stress on this buried PWL. I'm more concerned about drifting on the PWL outside of the upper Cottonwoods where the snowpack is thinner and the PWL is weaker.</p>
Maybe a cm or two of dense graupel, but hard to tell with such strong winds.