Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2835 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Translating this news to more extreme steep rocky north facing terrain does not take much imagination to figure out what the overall set up is and unfortunately give us conditions much like last year. Due to lack of wind with our last little stint of showers has capped NE through E facing windslabs with low density snow and surface hoar, another bad combo. While harmless now, combined with limited access, when winter does arrive, it will not take much to overload what is on the ground now, so if NW firehose forecast for Saturday night into Monday reaches this far south, we are set up for first widespread avi cycle of the year, if we continue to stay on the edge of active weather and slowly increase snowpack depth, the problem will not go away any time soon</p>
small grained snow in strongest mid pack layer ( 4 finger) is not storing any energy, but continues to facet rather that settle and gain strength
Wind / heat crusts in more open areas still would not support skis/boards on uptrack or when skiing down
South facing still looking very thin
Some wind transport on Wedding Ring Ridge but not up to usual levels
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>When slabs do form with new snow, it will be over very weak foundation</p> <p>the biggest danger at this point are the deadfall, exposed rocks, and other terrain obstacles you will likely hit on anything but grassy lower angle slopes</p>
We purposely sought out very sheltered N facing snowpack to confirm what we already thought. Although temperatures have been on the moderate side, low angle sun and very shallow pack creates a strong enough gradient to continue to weaken the snow. We found a variety of crusts down 2"-4" and around 10" that seems to disappear once we got to very sheltered areas, but overall snow totals are 16" in undisturbed areas and have not gained much strength. While lower angle slopes and a little speed would allow boards and wider skis to float above it all, we do not think it would support snow machines, especially those with more aggressive tracks, you would churn down through the entire pack to the dirt/rocks/weeds before you could get enough purchase to climb or even traverse most areas. We have only added to smoothing over anchors with more depth and increased the likelihood of a widespread cycle once and if it really does snow.