Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Toured to Maybird today to get a look at the alpine snowpack. Our nice and calm storm last weekend left us with plenty of snow available for transport and it’s currently being moved just about everywhere. Hand shears on the hike up showed 4F+ slab development and cohesion on top of the F hardness storm snow. Collapses and cracks were noted in lesser travelled and more loaded areas.
Above 9,000 precip was falling at S1 in the morning and progressed to S2. Winds from the S and W started at moderate gusting strong and by the time we left there were some extreme gusts.
I’ve been curious about snow depths in the upper elevation areas of LCC and wasn’t surprised to see how variable it is. Measurements ranged from 75cm on ridges to over 200cm in the loaded areas with most probe strikes going to about 170cm in the upper Maybird area.
Dug a pit on a WNW aspect at 10,100’. We did two ECTs. Results from one side of the pit gave us an ECTP25 down 110cm where the HS was 175cm. Results from the other side of the pit where the HS was 195cm gave us an ECTX. Still lots of variability out there and nothing is even close to being locked up on the North side of the compass.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Still getting ECT results, even in spots with more snow where the November facet layer is buried over a meter deep. This layer of concern is F hardness and on the bottom of the snowpack. These avalanches would be pretty big and I’ve been surprised to see that people have been skiing out from them. With more and more loading, I expect some of these slabs to start releasing.</p> <p>For the next few days, I bet this will be just as important of a problem as the PWL. Plenty of strong winds from the S through W today, but some spots the wind is swirling around, blowing hard, and loading everything. I’d be terrified to watch one step down to the PWL.</p>