Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3353 m
- Slope Angle
- 30°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Not too many red flags to report on today. I did not experience any collapsing today. I traveled on shady north facing slopes around Lone Pine and Tele Gold.</p>
Persistent weak layers less reactive today compared to a week ago. On north facing slopes the surface snow is weak. In some places this weak snow is beneath wind slabs that were formed mid week. Weak surface snow could potentially be our next weak layer.
First photo shows the wind slab that popped out while isolating a column. The other two photos are of Tele Gold. One week ago my party put about 20 tracks on this slope. The tracks are completely buried by avalanche debris and the photos show freshly broken trees and shrubs. These slides came down from above. This happened mid week, possibly wednesday.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Persistent weak layers are still present in mid pack, but less reactive than a week ago. No collapses today. The faceted layer above the melt freeze crust did not react to stability testing. Last week these facets were more loose and granular than they were today. </p> <p>Lone Pine proper was certainly wind loaded. I stayed in the trees adjacent to the slope. There was a pretty stiff wind slab where I was standing, and it looked a bit thicker out in the middle of lone pine. The slab was cracking under my skis. While performing a compression test, this wind slab popped out while isolating my column. Very weak snow below the wind slab.</p>