Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The poor structure relates to the density inversions. We did not find any facet/crusts on our travels from Town of Alta to Reynolds Flat.</p>
Photo of fracture lines outlined and debris is visible. Flat light prohibited better photos.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Saw evidence of wind effected storm slabs up on Cardiac Ridge that appeared to be from earlier in the morning. Due to flat light it was hard to say for sure but they did not seem to have new snow atop the debris. There were a few groups milling about on these 3 different bed surfaces and they may report out on what they found. The characteristics seem to be the same as all those reported in the last week+.</p> <p>Exiting the drainage the new snow was damp and there was evidence or previous wet loose in the forest on steep road cut. However the cloud cover and new snowfall today, along with temps that seemed colder than yesterday kept the warming issues at bay.</p>
Overnight snowfall of 15cm atop another 15-20cm from the day prior. A 4F crust of melt forms below this new snow exists on E-S-W and is supportable. On northerly facing terrain the upper 1m of snowpack is right side up, yet a few hardness changes are noted and this appears to be the denisty inversions of lower density snow sitting below the surface slab forming through the effects of warming and wind. It is a rather relative hardness change of only one step or less. But its enough and the there are plenty of human triggered and natural avalanches to prove there is instability.