Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No red flags observed today, but yesterday's very strong winds created lots of wind drifting. In the Gold Hill area many of these wind drifts have settled out and were not very reactive today as I was stomping around. </p>
The new snow seemed to be well behaved today, some minor sluffing that could be more of a hazard in steep terrain and with tomorrows sunshine the new snow will sluff quite easily.
Cornices along the high ridgelines continue to grow large and are quite impressive.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I was not finding the wind drifts to be very sensitive today. Many of these would break at your skis and sled only a foot or so deep and would only entrain a little bit of the new snow as they traveled down the slope. In the very high steep terrain, some of these wind drifts could be more of a problem. The other issue for tomorrow might be the new snow sluffing easily with warming temperatures. </p> <p>Have not seen any recent deep slab avalanches, but I still think there are many areas throughout the area where this problem is still a good possibility. </p>
Not quite enough new snow to fill-in all the old tracks, but it sure did help the riding and turning conditions out there. There is still some nice powder like snow in sheltered areas and last nights snow freshened things up. The sunny slopes quickly took on some heat with the brief periods of sunshine, turning the new snow into damp gloppiness.