Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Widespread Loose Dry on many steep slopes. Most appeared to have some kind of Wind Loading as a contributing factor. These winds were creating soft slabs and they were up to 10 to 12 inches deep. It was very easy to initiate Loose Dry Avalanches on slopes steeper than 33 degrees. These Loose Dry Avalanches were running on various bed surfaces and weak layers. In the shady protected areas where there are varying depths of NSF's this layer was serving as a reactive weak layer. In other areas the slick and slippery old snow surfaces were serving as an excellent bed surface and in these firm sun crusted areas the new snow appeared to be bonding to the old m/f crusts. On these slopes there appeared to be a small/minor inversion within the new snow. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>See above regarding Shallow/Manageable Wind Slabs. With the Light density snow, even Moderate to Light Winds appear capable of contributing to Wind Slab development. </p> <p>See above for Loose Dry Issues. </p> <p> </p> <p>And with the forecast for Sunny skies on Thursday, there will be concerns for Loose Wet on steep slopes with aspects receiving direct solar: SE, S, SW and W o</p>
The variable conditions that existed before todays event are now buried with 2 to 6 inches of very light density snow. Riding is good on Low Angle Slopes that were smooth before the latest event. The new snow is fast. Skinning is very slippery on anything that isn't low angle and appropriate for skinning.