Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Elevation
- 3170 m
Personal note about the run: The turns at the top of the run was heavy & wind-loaded. The middle had some nice light turns but the outrun was long and tricky. It's still very early season and I had to take the run very slow, and skied over dozens of rocks and fallen trees. There were times I was trapped by the large number of fallen trees. I'd recommend waiting till the snowpack has covered all the downed trees for a smooth run down from the 10420 peak.
This is my first submitted observation. Thanks UAC for all the help over the years. [Forecaster Note: Thanks for the observation, Ashley! We look forward to more!]
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I dug a snow pit very close to the peak of 10420 above Guardsman on a NW aspect, 20 degree angled slope. There was about 75-80cm (about 2.5 feet) of snow in the snow pit I dug. I assume this snow is all from the storm system we had over the last 5 days.</p> <p> </p> <p>I did an amateur shovel compression test (single column), pictured here, and I got a shear at about 25cm down from the top. Snow seemed right side up.</p> <p>There was wind loading on the ridgeline at top of 10420. I approached from Guardsman Pass direction and took the ridgeline up. There was a lot of wind loading on the NW aspects of the mountain which made for deep, very heavy turns from the peak of 10420. There didn't seem to be wind loading at lower elevations.</p>