Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3170 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Lower elevation slopes damp. Roller balls and pinwheels observerved on steep slopes below 9K. Minor cracking and collapsing. </p>
Rime in upper elevation terrain.
Traveled from 7400-10,600, mostly north half of the compass. Warm today and forecasted for the next few days. Even though the wind was blowing in the moderate to strong category the warm temps were not making a lot of snow available for transport, even on the upper elevation ridge lines. Pit tests reflected mostly stable snow where we dug.
All we can do is wait and see...lack of a good refreeze at lower elevations may make lower elevation slopes more prone to wet slides. Which way will the warm temps drive the temperature gradient in the pack? Will the surface snow continue to facet? I'm curious to get out some more over the next several days to see how the snow reacts to the spring-like conditions forecasted.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Wet avalanches AND wind wind slabs.</p>
Damp snow to about 9500 ft. You could still make a snowball with the snow above 9500 but not as pronounced as below that elevation. Wind skins on upper elevation slopes, micro to 2" thick capping surface hoar/faceted grains. The wind was degrading some of the upper elevation surface hoar and I was noticing a lot of rimed surface hoar as well.