Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>There were some fresh wind drifts and cracking within the new snow. Late in the afternoon when I was out, the wind loading had mellowed some. The shallow wind drifts were just off the ridge lines and roughly 10~12" deep and just pockety. </p>
Mostly just sluffing of the new snow when I got a small piece of wind drifted snow to break and move downhill. I was able to find one small pocket of wind slab just off the ridge on a northeast facing slope. It needed a bit of slope angle to move and just involved the new snow.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The wind slabs I encountered today were quite manageable, breaking only several inches deep and only involved the new snow. I did not venture out into steep terrain and test bigger slopes. I was finding these fresh wind slabs just off the ridge lines and only small pockets.</p> <p>I did not spend much time looking into buried weak layers and my quick snow pits did not reveal any glaring weaknesses. I was observing some moderate clean shears just within the snow. </p>
A nice little storm to freshen things up and cover the old hard tracks. The new snow seemed a bit upside down with slightly denser snow on top and lighter snow underneath, but conditions where still quite good.