Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- isolated
3-10" of new and drifted snow between canyon floor and 7500 feet. Sitting on last week's snow surfaces, which were mostly melt-freeze crusts on steeper, sun-exposed slopes and old snow on sheltered slopes. 1 audible collapse, 2 recent natural avalanches, and no shooting cracks or propagating test results. Snow felt cakey and a little dense on open, west facing slopes at upper elevation but we found no distinct wind slabs.
1 glide ctack opening on a steep, southeasterly slope at upper elevations.
Today's sunny breaks were strong enough to thicken the surface snow on the most open mid elevation slopes. May be a slight crust in the morning.
Isolated short, radial cracks around skis while breaking trail. Crust breaking on soft snow below. 1 audible collapse at ~6600 feet as later skiers approached regroup point. Not loud.Weather
- Air Temp
- low 20s
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- T
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Broken clouds, with strong sun when windows were open. Calm to light winds until early afternoon, then winds got gusty when convective cell moved through. A few flurries.
Snowpack
3-10 inches of new and some drifted snow between 4200 and 7500 ft. Deepest accumulations at mid elevations; windward, upper elevations scoured, with just 2-4" sitting on last Thursday's MFcr. A thin layer of near-surface facets exists at the new/ old snow interface, which made for planar breaks in most hand shear tests. Recent snow did not feel stiff enough to act as a slab.
Test profile at 6600 ft, W slope, 26*. HS 300 cm. 20 cm F to F+ hard new/ drifted snow sitting on 3-5 cm P hard MFcr. Thin layer of NSF at interface. ECTN 16; CTM 11 SP. Below MFcr, ECTN 21, CTM 16. Generally harder with depth below, though a few slightly softer interfaces that did not fail in ECT.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R1
- Type
- U
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 6900 ft
Small, narrow natural avalanche that broke below rocks on leeward slope. Debris did not trigger slab on slope below.