Quick report
- Aspect
- Southeast
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming
- Elevation
- 2621 m
- Slope Angle
- 21°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The snowpack took some heat. Below 7800' the snow was sticky enough to be wetted through the top 4-6" on all aspects. The moisture had not penetrated to the ground layers or even midpack. </p>
Total depth of snow was 2.5'. This was above average for most the the area we traveled in from 7,200-9,000' with a lot less snow on the southerly aspects where you could see summer surface and brush poking through. The pencil hard melt-freeze crust 1.5' off the ground had dry facets underneath and that is where stability tests showed us we had failures. The snow temperatures in this location show us how the mid-pack melt-freeze crust is driving faceting. Read more HERE.
Looking east towards Butler Fork.
Looking south towards Kessler
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>In the location we dug on a southeast aspect at 8580' the PWL was wet. </p>
Below 8k all aspects were wetted on the surface with increasing size of wet roller balls as elevation decreased to 7200'. Largest outlier rollerballs were up to 2' in diameter and breaking apart on east facing aspects in the trees. Most rollerballs in the 4-10" range and all breaking up before en-training any more snow.
Below photo Surface Hoar mixed with melt forms on an east facing slope at 7600'