Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We witnessed plenty of collapsing and cracking while traveling, some quite thunderous. We found the poor snowpack structure to begin on this particular NNE aspect at 8,000', where a thin layer of facets could be found at the ground beneath the new snow as of Dec. 9th. </p>
Plenty of cracking and collapsing could be seen and felt today on our tour in Mineral Fork. We found a poor snowpack structure on a NNE facing rib beginning at 8000', where we began seeing a thin layer of facets below the new snow since 12/09/21 (photo below). We performed an ECT at this location (8000' NNE) and got a result of ECTP-20 at the facet/slab interface. While walking along the ridgeline at 9200', cracks shot out beneath our skis and spread hundreds of feet onto the slopes beneath us (pictured below). We limited our tour to ridges and slopes below 30 degrees, as we were sure any steep NW-N-NE facing slopes would avalanche with the weight of a human.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces traveled on were soft, powder snow.