Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
See above. Observed blowing snow, rolling and saltation, in open areas near tree line and above tree line. Deposition occurred in isolated and shallow pockets in the lee of small and convex rollovers or mid-slope in steeper terrain on the way up to the crest. Stomping on a test slope at 10300' NE aspect I got several shooting cracks propagating about 8 m in a couple of directions away from my skis. However, the slab did not move downhill. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the 15 cm P hard wind slab sat on 3 cm of F soft decomposing fragmenting and likely faceting snow. A poor structure for this isolated wind slab to sit on. Higher up on steeper terrain, I encountered more shallow and isolated wind slabs that also sat on a small layer of soft snow and had recently formed with the winds moving the last bit of loose snow around. It was easy to spot these wind slabs and go around them on firm and wind scoured old snow.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- light
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Very windy at the crest at 11300' blowing from the SW. Light winds with moderate gusts near tree line and in sheltered terrain below the crest, swirling and moving snow in many different directions. Started the day with light cirrus clouds that became increasingly thicker as the day went on. Clouds started to make way for clear blue sky around 1600.
Snowpack
Skied a variety of surface conditions ranging from smooth and supportable wind board to soft rippled wind compressed snow and recrystallized pow in sheltered trees down lower. Below 9000' we hit some sticky spots where the sun and warmer temperatures are affecting the snow.