Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Lots of cracking in storm snow, especially in areas with any wind loading.</p>
No detailed pits or photos from today. LOTS of hasty pits and ski cuts. In addition to weaknesses down ~20 cms, was also getting clean shears down 45-50 cms (18-20")at ~9000' just above MF crust from earlier this week. This surprised me a bit as Wednesday storm seemed to come in very warm, with rain to 9k, indicating storm snow should have bonded well.
Didn't really start paying attention to structure of the snowpack until about 8500'. Was finding 1-2 cm supportable MF crust, with damp grains beneath it above that elevation. The damp grains were not especially weak. Saw others (Trent in Cardiff) finding very weak damp/wet facets at lower elevations, so it may be more elevation dependent.
Storm snow weaknesses should settle out quickly. Would be very leery of deep slab issues given continued activity in deeper layers this past week, plus the significant loading since Wednesday.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Most noticeable hazard today was sensitivity within storm slabs. Lots of cracking, and very reactive down ~20-25 cms (8-10") in either interface with old snow, or lower-density layer within storm snow.</p> <p>Didn't dig down deeply enough today to identify or assess this layer. But we've received 2-3+ inches of SWE over the past 3-4 days. A significant load over a short period of time. Only means deep slab avalanches will just be larger than before.</p>
Dense storm snow totaling 30 cms (12") in Maybird above 9000'. Periods of graupel showers.