Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2804 m
- Slope Angle
- 27°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The snow structure was not as dramatically bad as I expected based on reports</p>
Stability tests: Several compression tests and an ECT yielded no results but several shovel shear tests showed a very easy failure with Q2 shear, 1 of 3 failing about 40 cm down and again at 75 cm and 2 others failing 75 deep, both depths failing on 4 finger hardness small facets below a pencil hard layer. Total snow depth 175 cm. I've never noticed such an easy shear failure with no compressive failure.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Wind effect was limited to an easily breakable 2-4 cm surface in the spot I dug. Between that point and the ridgeline the snow surface ranged from soft and dense to supportable wind board</p>
Highly variable snow surface - I was about 200 ft below the ridgeline on a lee slope with a wide range of wind effect from the last 24 hours