Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
The new snow was just consolidating into a slab in sheltered terrain but by the end of the day, we saw cracking around our skis on low angle slopes. The biggest sign of instability was the absolute poor snowpack structure being rapidly loaded! As we left, road cuts along the highway were starting to release naturally as D1 slab avalanches at the new snow interface. No significant slides were noted, but these road cuts often indicate the start of a natural avalanche cycle.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Rain Elevation
- n/app
- Recent Snowfall
- 18cm at 1100, 30cm by 1400
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
High snowfall rates and strong southwest winds. We stayed out of high elevation terrain today due to the high winds but even at mid elevation, we saw significant snow transport into usually sheltered terrain.
Snowpack
We finally have the slab to test our existing weak layers. The old snow is primarily faceted with two layers of preserved surface hoar in the upper third of the snowpack. We saw wind pillows mid slope on low angle slopes that are usually sheltered. We did not observe the upper elevation ridgelines due to high wind, but I have a high degree of certainty that there is significant wind slab formation on north and east aspects.