Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading
- Elevation
- 2926 m
- Slope Angle
- 22°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>12" of new snow and over 1" of SWE is definitely red flag-worthy, although the new snow seemed to be bonding well. We saw some light wind loading above 9,500 feet, which was creating a 4F wind slab. It seemed like you'd need to add wind to the equation to get an avalanche in this area.</p>
We dug a quick pit to assess new snow instabilties and to target a near surface facet layer (below the dust layer) 30-40 cm down that has been producing mixed ECTP and ECTN results for the last couple days. We got ECTN results on the old/new snow interface down 30 cm and ECTN within the old snow however we saw no failures within the facet layer. The facets were small grained and showed signs of rounding. Implications is that this facet layer is not a widespread problem but is something to keep on the radar. (See photo below)
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>With plenty of snow available for transport and some wind I'm sure you could find wind slab today. We traveled in mostly sheltered terrain but the snow in the wind zone was beginning to slab up. I'd anticipate this trend to increase as winds ramped up in the afternoon. </p> <p>As noted the new snow seemed to be bonding well although we did experience some sluffing in steep terrain. Trend staying the same as this storm continues. </p>
There seemed to be about 30–35 cm of medium-density new snow in the Guardsman area. The new snow appeared to be bonding well with the old snow surface, and steep test slopes showed some sluffing in the upper few inches. On steeper terrain at upper elevations, the snow seemed to entrain a bit more and moved fairly quickly.
Tiny bit of sluffing in the surface while on steep test slopes and cutbacks.