Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Primary concern today was wind loading. Snow did not seem as connected as I might have expected (up to 8500' anyway). Cracking was pretty minimal. New snow also seemed reasonably well bonded.</p>
Dirt crusts on solar aspects were strong and supportable. On north facing slopes the crust below the new snow was softer and had some weaker snow below. In the picture below, I was able to easily remove snow below the crust which seemed like it could have more potential for avalanches,
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Plenty of snow available to transport. Wind gusts likely approaching 30-40 mph with about 10" of snow. Plumes of snow visible at a distance. It seemed like the wind picked up around 11am too.</p>
Generally enough snow to cover old crusts and ski pretty well. Snow was wind affected in areas but so long as you were skiing mostly out of the wind, did not seem as slabby and dense as you might expect given the high winds.
Melt-freeze crust was present and you could notice it in areas that were steeper.