Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- isolated
A notable increase in wind drifting has formed dense, sensitive drifts up to several feet thick in leeward features along ridgetop. In wind protected terrain, slabs over basal weak layers remain soft, poorly developed and unreactive underfoot. We felt comfortable riding on steeper slopes out of the wind, and avoided steep wind-loaded terrain today.
Frequent shooting cracks and occasional collapses in drifted features as we gained Purple Ridge. Cracks were running 20 to 30 feet, in drifts typically 1 to 3' thick, 4F hard. Most of the shooting cracks appeared to fail within the recent storm snow; the larger collapses likely failed on the 11/30 PWL.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 3
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Light snowfall. Moderate W/NW winds near treeline, with a few periods of intense transport during stronger gusts. The current wind event is diminishing snow available for transport.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- E
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 11900 ft
We hoped to get some crown details from yesterday's persistent slab activity up here, but winds have blown the crowns in and it was difficult to get much info. We triggered a couple of slumpy wind slabs on small test features.