Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The winds were really ramping up today ahead of the storm, mainly form a west direction and what loose snow there is to blow around was drifting into shallow wind slabs that would crack. Noticed some old avalanche debris on the east side of Moffit Peak, likely human triggered in steep rocky and likely weak shallow snow. Good info that there are still places where the snow pack structure is still somewhat thin and weak and slides can be triggered in these areas.</p>
Not sure the time frame on this slide, but is some great information that there are still places that have a weak snow pack structure and once a person finds the weak spot on the slope avalanches can be triggered.
Spotted this slide from the top of Gold Hill today and thought it might be good to take a look. This northeast facing slope gets heavily wind loaded with south and west winds and it looks like it was human triggered based on skier and sled tracks on the ridge. I was a little surprised to see how wide and connected it was roughly 200' wide, 2-3' deep and it did not travel far as the slope angle becomes less. Thinking maybe some low density or preserved faceted snow that was the old snow surface was buried by heavy wind drifted snow and a person was able to trigger it from a shallow spot off the ridge line.
The hazard could quickly rise from moderate to considerable with strong winds and heavy wet snow forecasted.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Winds from a mostly westerly direction were on the increase today and blowing snow onto the leeward slopes creating wind slabs. The recent human triggered slide on a northeast facing slope on Moffit Peak was a great indication of how some of these wind slabs can get a little bigger and deeper given the right terrain. </p> <p>Keep thinking the persistent weak snow problem is a thing of the past, but given the small, although older slide on Moffit Peak that looked to be sled triggered, this problem is still present. </p>
Up in the wind zone was hard slabby snow, some heat crusts on the sunny aspects, hard frozen old tracks in open areas, but quite nice dense settled powder out of the wind.