Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Plenty of wet loose from the last 1 and 1/2 wet cycles....mostly west and east, some mid elev. north. Feel that we were able to avoid a significant cycle this go-around due to slowly warming temps and enough cloud cover. Perhaps some more wet activity with direct sun and warm temps this weekend -</p>
Snowpack
We saw it (almost) all. Dense powder above 9500' due north, hard supportable wind and m/f crusts up high. Hogum 100 was, uh, interesting. East facing Hypodermic Needle was supportable m/f crust with some damp grains beneath - no free water. Cloud cover slowed much softening of the crusts...and booting up high was fast in the couloir. Upper 1000' of Coalpit held the last vestiges of dense powder; below that held a softening m/f zipper crust...with snow turning isothermal perhaps 8000' northerly...this is a rough estimate. Overnight lows were in the upper 20s, low 30s in LCC Thursday night. That combined with intermittent cloud cover did not inspire much confidence at 430am; still an early start and an eye on conditions and cloud cover supported the route selection.