Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Observed recent avalanches (see avalanche observations; occurred 1/23 and 1/24). Plenty of snowfall in the last few days to be concerning, though snow was tapered out during our quick laps. I'm sure there are structural problems in the snowpack to worry about with buried surface hoar, NSF, and possibly other facet layers, but as we were pressed for time we did not do any digging and instead elected to ride <30 degree terrain on some great powder.</p>
I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting snow remaining tomorrow to keep things spicy and at Considerable hazard. Interested to see what effect the ridging will have on the lower elevation snow and its stability.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Plenty of new snow, though it all seemed to be quite low density over the last 2 days. Could see the possibly for sluffing/loose dry as well.</p> <p>My hunch is that the buried facet layer about 3' deep is responsible for the avalanches we saw as it was loaded with new snow.</p>
Powder, and plenty of it. New snow overnight seemed like it was only a few inches, 3 to perhaps 6" at the most, though it was difficult to differentiate from yesterday's new snow. Old tracks had filled in some but were still evident. No signs of snow transport, and ski pen varied from as much as 60cm+ to as little as 20cm. Boot pen was thigh deep.