Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
Dense storm snow may settle out with time but with more snow and wind overnight, steeper slopes could remain sensitive. The new snow wasn't damp at mid elevations (8k to 9k) but the underlying snow was still damp and insulated. Slides gouging into this layer may become wet as they move downslope.
Photo of collapse and cracking in test slope at 8000 feet.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>New snow from today had started to consolidate into a slab this afternoon. Winds were also blowing contributing to this problem. There seemed to be a density inversion about 10-15" down that you could feel with your pole and when breaking trail. Total snow depth seemed to be about 24" on top of wet snow grains at 9k. The new snow was a bit stubborn by late in the day but still was cracking at your feet on steeper rollovers. Test slopes were producing some collapsing and cracking. It seemed that the snow was bonding to old snow somewhat well but we never really tested this on steeper slopes.</p> <p> </p> <p>The amount of new snow and high PI rates seemed to cause avalanching within the storm snow rather than at the new snow/old snow interface. We saw small crowns (8-12") at small rollovers throughout our travel but none of which ran all that far or broke wide, however, we weren't in bigger terrain. </p>