Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3048 m
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Checked wind loading as it was obvious this was going on elsewhere, even though it was minimal where we were. Probably could have checked heavy snowfall (for this year it seems like it), but seems like it came in over enough days that it wasn't a big sudden load. Poor structure was really the biggest red flag in areas we travelled, see below.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Seems like the new snow was not quite enough of a load/slabby enough in this area (again...wind sheltered). Couldn't get any collapsing or cracking despite jumping on a lot of steep little test slopes. Also, couldn't get much action in stability tests, what I did get was near the ground on the October facets in a thinner area with a little big of pressure (ECTP 25 Q1). Although failure at the ground is alarming in its own right, I was surprised to not get anything mid-pack, and in a separate pit I could not get any failure. </p> <p>All that said, it doesn't really matter. The weakness of the old snow was super variable, even over a distance of a couple meters you could find places (both on the up and down) where you would crash into super weak faceted snow below. On several of my test slopes, jumping up and down only augured my in up to my waist in a bottomless snowpack. The variability, extremely poor structure, and the obvious winds in more exposed places was enough to keep us in lower angle terrain.</p>
About 6 inches from yesterday and overnight, with around 16 inches total. Snow from yesterday and overnight was slightly denser; however, the difference between it and the underlying snow was not drastically different and snow did not have a pronounced upside down feel (at least not anything that wasn't mitigated by large boards). Further, typical new snow tests didn't show the top 6 inches to be cracking out. Exception was right near the ridgeline, where there was enough wind effect to get some very minor cracking. Would have been different in higher elevation terrain.