Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>As the snow heated, we started to see small natural avalanches from snow shedding off rocks.</p> <p>We were able to trigger fast running new snow avalanches on steeper terrain. With 12" of snow, these could easily knock a person over if they were caught off guard.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>With periods of sun during the day, I would expect the new snow settled and gained strength very quickly. The Atwater study plot showed about 2" of snow settlement during the day.</p> <p>While wet snow was not a problem while we were out today, I would expect this could be an issue for Saturday as weather clears and temperatures climb.</p>
The Red Baldy area had about 12" of new snow. The old snow surface was very hard. The storm deposited a layer of graupel on top of the old snow before the low density snow fell. This lead to poor bonding of the new and old snow. Once the snow took on a little heat, we started to experience fast running new snow avalanches due to the graupel layer.
We only witnessed wind drifted snow on the high rigdelines. It appears that this area was well protected from the wind during the storm.