Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Even in terrain sheltered by the ridge in the aspens we observed some irksome wind crusts on top of the soft new snow. Only in the denser pines on the lee side of the ridge did we find pleasant turning conditions. I'm excited to see what tonight's storm brings
Pictured below, Will M crunching through the wind buffed surface a few hundred yards past the TH.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise but today we witnessed some crazy winds from the SW-SSW. Blew my sunglasses off my head and about toppled me over, it also stripped most of the new snow off the ridge and the windward slopes. There were hard and soft wind slabs on the lee slopes. In a hand pit at 9500' I had a slab shear off cleanly at a change in density within the new snow. 1f to 4f-. These wind slabs are piled on top of faceted snow. The skinning conditions were less than ideal on the ridge due to the hard wind packed snow or the hard old snow, exposed by the wind. </p> <p>Buried NSF observed on NE-NW today</p>