Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No red flags</p>
We did a big loop and covered lots of ground riding in steep terrain and climbing several chutes. The snowpack overall is deep, strong, and stable. I looked for some older weak layers buried about 3 feet or so that I've been watching. They haven't been producing avalanches, but I've been finding them and they have been breaking in my snowpack tests. Today, I could find them, but they wouldn't break after the standard 30 taps of my shovel, and would only break after I hit my shovel as hard as I possibly could - a very good sign.
Note - we never use tests to give us a green light. In this case, I have been watching test scores steadily rising and improving - so the trend is what gives a green light in combination with a lack of avalanche activity and no recent loading.
The only issue we could see was some wind drifted above treeline. Also a chunk of cornice that had dropped and pushed some snow downhill, but didn't trigger a bigger avalanches (a positive sign). Photo below.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>There was evidence of wind across slopes above treeline that had moved snow, but slabs of wind drifted snow should be mostly stabilized with yesteday's warm temps.</p> <p>Cornices are very big in some places and may break under Sunday's heat. Stay away from them.</p>
Absolutely hero snow! Go anywhere but still plenty soft - on shaded slopes. Southerly slopes are crusty in the morning and wet in the afternoon.