Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>In my short trip around the Murdock Meadow area, I was experiencing many collapses and some shooting cracks while trail breaking. Digging down into the snowpack I was finding the 8-10" of new snow from last night sitting on top of a thin layer of weak faceted snow that was above a possible heat layer (crust).</p>
A few photos from my travels today. Photos 1&2: Much of the high elevation north facing terrain is still not very connected, with lots of rocky and brushy areas still visible. 3. A little hard to see, but these are some of the cracks I experienced while traveling around today. They are a good indication of strong snow sitting on top of weaker snow underneath.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The new snow and moderate to strong winds created some slab like condtions, with stronger denser snow resting on lighter denser snow underneath. </p>
The snow conditions were a little inverted with denser, heavy wind blown snow on the surface with lighter snow underneath.