Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>As mentioned above, I observed several shooting cracks and audible collapses while breaking trail up lower-angle polar aspects exposed to the wind. I did not need to dig a pit as there were obvious facets underneath the wind board.</p>
Photo 1) Low tide in the North Bowl of South Mountain. I thought I could see some old debris as well as some possible crown lines.
Photo 2) Ridge between Tuk and Peale looks to have good coverage and was perhaps filling in a bit with the northerly winds.
Snowpack
On polar aspects, Hs ranged from 5cm at 7,500' up to about 60 cm around 10K. Southerlies were almost bare all the way up to 9,500'. Recent Northerly winds have wreaked havoc on any exposed surface. Near treeline around 9k on a westerly aspect, Hs was ~30cm and consisted of a supportive Mf crust covered by the recent snow which appears to have begun to turn to facets. At higher elevations in open areas, 1-5cm thick "wind board" was producing shooting cracks up to 30'. Along with the cracking, I obsered audible collapsing. Ski quality was very poor.