Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>While the wind loading was not as widespread as forecasted, it was definitely present and reactive. Mt. Aire could be an outlier to the low side in this regard, and in general, It definitely will be wise to continue to be wary of N, E, and S facing slopes, testing for wind loading and treating them as guilty until proven innocent.</p>
This is a picture of a cornice on the E facing side of the S ridge of Mt. Aire. It cracked and broke away when deliberately stepped on by an earlier party, but did not run far or trigger anything below it. Wind deposition from Tuesday night is present but manageable.
I used the wind scoured ridge to reach the summit with minimal difficulty. Testing the snow down off the ridge on the way up resulted in cracking in only one isolated spot. In general, even the wind deposition had little mass (about 4" thick) and was sufficiently bonded to prevent failure. I observed several tracks from earlier in the morning on the E facing runs coming down from the summit with no evidence of slab avalanches even in the boldest lines.
My party chose a moderate angled descent off the NE ridge to completely avoid the wind deposition, and found the snow down off the ridge to be well bonded settled powder with no signs of instability.
Snowpack
Excellent powder could be found on all aspects today. While the ridges were scoured by the west winds, and wind deposition of pencil hardness could be found in a few favored pockets, areas affected by wind to this extent were mercifully not as widespread as feared on the Mt. Aire ridgeline and summit. Below the ridgeline, E facing snow was perfect settled powder. While it was possible to identify the old snow surface below the Mon/Tues storm snow, the interface was sufficiently well bonded in my tests to inspire confidence.