Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2774 m
While there was plenty of new snow out there to be transported (boot pen 40 cms), winds were calm while we were out so this didn't become an issue.
Skies were overcast and the air felt humid. From the top of Reynolds, the landscape looked more like the PNW than the Wasatch. Good conditions for strengthening the snowpack. It was markedly warmer today than yesterday, but with overcast skies, the snow wasn't warming too fast. At lower elevation on our drive out of BCC, we observed some small point releases on steep roadcuts.
The snow where we dug was pretty simple. Soft new snow on top with progressively stronger and stronger snow down to the 30 cms of 4F facets at the ground. Biggest concern was the jump from P - 4F hardness at the top of the basal facets. No propagation in our ECT, but we did get a CT24 SC in the basal facets and PST45/100 END @ 30 cms off the ground on the round/facet interface. A quick shovel shear test broke out on a small mid-pack graupal layer, but was this layer was unreactive in other tests. All-in-all the pack is shaping up nicely for the time of year and I think we're in for a great season moving forward.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The wind slab issue from previous loading episodes appeared to settle out by our tour between 7-11 am. Reynolds Face was wall to wall tracks with only a small wind pocket being triggered on the skier's R shoulder. A previous party, maybe the day before, put a big ski cut in across the face on top of pre-existing tracks without result. </p> <p>The new low density snow sloughed easily on steep test slopes. It actually sounded like NSF "loud pow" as we skied but it was all perfect stellars. We didn't ski slope steep enough to require slough management.</p>