Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>surface hoar and faceting of surface snow will be the player in next cycle</p>
relative size
Mini wind slab mechanics on surface hoar, what viddy does not show is how even small pieces of windcrust would just mow this stuff over
mowed over surface hoar
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>spatial varibility is the main player in the larger picture, and thinner areas are weakening as would be expected. The key will be to assessing where pack is thick and stronger vs areas that did avalanche in the Christmas cycle, and those that didn't. Wind redistribution is also a big player, and unusual east wind event must be considered. </p> <p>surface hoar obvious weak layer with new snow</p>
snow surface is weakest link right now, dinner plate surface hoar on most sheltered slopes, once buried, will bring us to another round of rolling thunder collapses if we are lucky enough to get more weather.
Forecaster comment: continued mild temperatures combined with cloud cover this afternoon made the snow surface become damp on all aspects up to around 9600 feet in elevation. This should destroy a good amount of the surface hoar that is on the surface right now. Of course, we always look under any new snow to see if any of this monkey business is still present. Kobernik