Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Dug a snow pit on a southwest aspect around 9500', new snow had been warmed a bit and seemed well bonded in the ECT compared to the guardsmans area obs from yesterday, obviously due to aspect. However underneath it was a mix of crusts and facets down to the ground, bottom seemed supportive but with a shovel sheer test after an ECT10 with no results I popped half the 70cm snowpack with a touch of force on a thin crust and thin layer of facets, on top of more crust...
photos shown, snowpack layering, viewed remote slide from previous day and a small remote trigger I caused along a small stream, slope angle was basically straight down while I was almost flat, but didn't seem to shoot any noticeable cracks from my skis but still triggered a small slab on the other side of the stream from about 15' away
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>70cm total in SW white pine around 9500' </p> <p>warm temps to start meant our SW zone skied creamy and noticeably denser than our approach with some lighter snow on northern terrain. North-east was lighter and less likely to bond. Noted on the way up a small remote trigger off the main trail likely from 12/15 on a northwest aspect around 40 degrees (will picture) found similar terrain on that aspect on test slopes were releasing easily, bed layer of first red flag was mainly a very thin crust that just breaks down into straight sugar. Simply skiing back down the main trail and onto the short 30-40 degree embankments along the side as pictured below would fracture at the top and send all the recent snow down on top of the crust-facets.</p> <p>With the current PWL were likely about to see even more reactive terrain, kept it very mellow after the first warning sign and avoided those northern aspects entirely as planned and settled for something more southwest, wasn't steep blower pow but supportable low angle cream is still just as fun right now with our current touchy and low tide snowpack. </p>