Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>New snow was forming cohesive soft slabs that failed easily on test slopes. Wind was creating wind slabs on the surface as well, 4F trending to 1F, also cracking on the surface and in test slopes. However, noted no cracking or collapsing otherwise.</p>
Dug on a NW aspect at 7650ft. Found easy shears at the interfaces beneath both the most recent (12/30) and previous (12/27-28) storm snow. This was consistent with surface slab failures on test slopes noted above. ECTX. A shear on the column after the test failed at the ground. This was consistent with another nearby pit with ECTX result.
Basal facets were 4F, a bit stronger than last time I was in this zone about a week ago. Facets were "snowball" damp, but not dripping wet.
At lower elevations, hand pits revealed a firm, frozen surface beneath the new snow, then a whole bunch of wet/saturated snow beneath that, all the way down the dirt.
Snowpack
By the time we headed back to the trailhead around 130pm, there had been about 15cm of accumulated new snow, making for generally soft turns. However, the snow surface was continually becoming wind affected, leading to higher snow density on the surface (or vert hard surface in scoured locations).