Quick report
Today I traveled through the Lakes Basin up to the Crest to assess the effects of the North winds on wind slab formation, scouring, etc. I was surprised to find intermittent winds in various directions, location depending, until around 4:30. By that point, north winds were a bit stronger and more consistent, and blowing more snow out of NE start zones. Slopes contain a variety of surfaces that are being loaded.
Travel was straightforward, but the variable surface types made skinning a challenge in some places.
Conditions were warm and lovely, until the winds picked up again near the crest. Wind chill was quite cold.
Isolated pockets of new snow (graupel) up to 5 cm sitting on top of a thin layer of DFpp, stellars, and NSF, on top of a crust produced loose dry sluffing NTL. No cracking or propagation. Immediate failure from underfoot. Wind slabs developing as day continued on S and SE slopes. Stubborn to my weight, and isolated in distribution due to variety of surface types and minimal snow to move around.Weather
- Air Temp
- 28|40
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- Trace
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Warm temps down low with intermittent light winds from the NNE. I could view SW winds to the south, but northerly winds to the north around 1 pm. I experienced light N winds as I traveled BTL and NTL, intermittently. The winds did not pick up until around 4:30, when I was on the Crest. N winds brought significant wind chill. Where the winds were not present, it was fairly warm.
Snowpack
BTL - variable surface types, dependent on sun exposure. Crusts everywhere, some softened if in sun, others in shade did not (breakable). All aspects.
NTL - variable surface types, pooling of new snow (graupel) in isolated, protected terrain features. Pooling on a variety of surface types. Notably, up to 5 cm pooling on top of DFpp, stellars and NSF, atop a sometimes supportable crust. Soft snow remains in very isolated and protected areas.
ATL - NE start zones - surfaces stripped, refaceted overnight, and being actively stripped by N winds. Also, some lingering drifts from the night prior exist on N slopes. N winds not taking snow from N NTL terrain. . S and SW faces have snow, not a lot, but not stripped up on crest. Various surface types to load...