Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>I was a bit surprised to have several collapses today traveling around and cracking within the recent snow. I like how Craig has talked about how the new snow is taking on some heat and starting to form and act like a slab. The slab is now possibly putting some stress on the very weak snow underneath from the recent storm snow, resulting in the cracking and collapsing. </p>
A couple photos of some recent activity from the last few days as riders got out and tested some slopes.
As the recent snow acts more like a slab I was observing some stress cracks on some slopes and cracking and collapsing with very weak snow underneath.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The cold light density snow that fell last week has undergone some changes with the wind and warming temps. Moving around a few days ago the new snow was light density and did not seem to change the avalanche conditions too much, but it feels like there is more of a slab right now. More snow and wind this weekend could create some interesting avalanche conditions. </p>
The snow conditions are hanging in there despite the warm temperatures, although the high sun angle is hitting more of the cold shady north facing slopes. Dry powder is a little harder to find, but wind sheltered low angle slopes seem to be the ticket. There was lots of damp snow today with the warming temperatures and some old tired wind slabs mixed in.