Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2530 m
Traveled on fairly sheltered E to N facing terrain 7400' to 8800'. Didn't expect to see much during the day, new snow seemed to be primarily graupel and skied pretty well.
I traversed across a north facing sparsly treed 25 degree slope at 8300' and felt a small collapse. I noticed cracks in the new snow graupel layer shooting 10 feet ahead and behind me, only a few inches deep. Upon further inspection I found a burried wind slab which appeared to have collapsed mid-pack on top of older, fist hard snow. Wind slab was probably left from the previous day snow+wind event. This structure seemed isolated to this spot, but certainly could exist elsewhere.