Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Shallow soft and wind drifted snow was fairly sensitive along the ridge lines, although these were quite shallow where I poked around. I could imagine some of these drifts to get a little more connected and deeper on steeper terrain. </p>
Just a couple inches new snow around the trail head and up the highway a few miles with generally 6-8" in the higher terrain.
I took this photo over the weekend near Whitney Res. and was amazed how much snow there is out there right now. This area does get some winds blowing down the drainage so it could be a little deeper than the true snow depth.
I was finding these shallow soft slabs on the north facing slopes along the ridge lines to be a little sensitive, but once you got down off the ridges this issue was not a problem.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The winds should be on the increase as the next storm approaches and the wind drifted snow issue will become more wide spread and deeper. </p> <p>Another shot of snow the next few days which should increase the new snow problem with soft slabs both natural and human triggered possible. </p>
A nice little storm for the north slope with only a couple inches at the trail head, but out in Whitney Basin I was finding anywhere from 6-8" with some of that getting blown around into deeper drifts. The exposed ridge lines were pretty worked by winds, but nice medium density snow helped to fill in most old tracks once you got off the ridge tops.