Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>These red flags were observed over the course of the tour. The recent avalanches were less than 24hrs old.</p>
Two profiles (7600' and 8150' Northerly facing) showed similar structure in the upper snowpack. Photo 1.
The most interesting thing was the dry and coarse grained rounding facets found in the bottom third of the snowpack. Photo 2 shows these 2mm factets. No failure initiation or propogation on this layer which was 120cm down.
We did see a small cornice collapse and resulting small wind windslab avalanche from the previous 24 hour period that had failed in a crossloaded terrain feature. Photo 3 illustrates this failure, and Photo 4 shows the fetch that was highly wind textured. Loading right to left in the image.
By the end of the tour at 1300 hrs visible loose wet avalnaches on steep East facing slopes of Mt. Aire could be seen, both natural and human triggered. Image 5.
Throughout the day, SW winds remained elevated along the highest peaks in the area and there was a near constant plume of snow blowing off of Grandview peak to our north. Image 6.
Overall this terrain is still holding HS up to 250cm in some favored locations. It is becoming more popular and many individuals and other groups were noted in the area. No signs of rider triggered slab avalanches in the terrain observed.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Primary concern was how the new snow was bonding to the old snow surface, which was a dirty Melt Freeze crust.</p> <p>As advertised, the warming temps pushed this problem into our mix, particularly with the greenhousing that took place mid day.</p>
The promise of quality powder skiing seemed dashed by some previous reports, however the overnight radiational cooling and settlement in the new snow improved turning conditions immensly. Ski quality was Good to Very Good on the first run in the Burn (North facing). By mid day however, the high thin clouds trapped the outgoing radiation and the snowpack took a serious hit. Snow became damp on even sheltered steep northerly slopes. The lowers exiting back to Lambs TH were manageable but very dense and turning was diffiuclt among the tight patches of scrub oak.