Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Despite the recent avalanche that buried a rider, what is so shocking is how easy it is to find the weak facets from the Jan/Feb dry period. Even more shocking and what's hard to appreciate is just how weak and loose these facets are. </p>
We were looking for the recent snowmobile triggered slide that buried a rider the day before but didn't find it. We may have looked right at it, but the light was flat.
Wherever the riding is good (aka deep and soft), the PWL exists. You can feel the soft snow under your feet and even under your skis/track and that tells you that the facets are there.
After riding near Humpy Peak, I rode 12 miles (as the crow flies) to the southwest and looked at the snow above Smith & Morehouse Reservoir on a low elevation, northwest facing slope. Below is the profile. It had some of the weakest snow I've seen. What's different in this location, was that being a lower elevation, it has a smaller load of new snow on it. However, with such weak snow, it doesn't need much of a load.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The PWL is easy to find. However, it's not on every slope. It's basically on slopes that kept dry powder during the prolonged dry period. Other slopes were crusted or wind scoured. Basically the surface was highly variable, but overall it became weak and faceted. Now it has 1-1.5 feet of new snow on top of it. </p> <p> </p> <p>Recent avalanche activity + very poor stability test results + approaching storm and strong west winds = increasing danger</p> <p> </p> <p>The challenge is that many upper elevation slopes have a spotty distribution of this layer due to winds during the dry period. This pockety distribution will create booby traps of unstable snow.</p>