Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>There were a couple areas where wind slabs formed yesterday from the new snow and late day winds. None of these were big enough to be really worrisome. Other than that, no red flags. In the places where you could poke down to the bottom of the snowpack with a pole (rare up high where we were), you could still feel our basal facets, but the slabs above the facets felt really strong today. We did encounter several areas with a 1-3" surface wind crust with faacets developing underneath - potentially future weak layers. Unfortunately there are large areas of hard wind buffed surface that will be likely weak interfaces for future snow to slide on if we ever get a real storm again.</p>
Lots of wind features in the alpine
Still some soft pockets if you hunt far and wide.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The facets are still down there dormant like an old volcano, but if we get a big loading event they could be reawakened. This is particularly true for the large number of north faces that slide in our new year cycle.</p> <p>There are a lot of crazy looking wind formations in the alpine. It's possible you could knock a small slab loose right now, but it probably wouldn't be big enough to be a huge deal. Still something to be aware of.</p>
The snow surface was incredibly variable today with mostly wind impacts of varying degree depending on aspect and exposure. We encountered every iteration of wind slab, crust, and soft depositional pockets. We managed to find more consistently soft snow on west aspects near wind barriers where snow seemed to have accumulated from yesterdays dusting of new snow. It's hard to find predictable snow in open areas near treeline and in the alpine. We hear rumors of nice soft snow in the sheltered areas of the North Woods.