Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2164 m
- Slope Angle
- 20°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We did not see any natural avalanches, nor cracking or collapsing. However, visibility was quite limited so it's possible there were naturally triggered slides that we were simply unable to see on more distant slopes.</p>
A quick pit to about 120cm in depth revealed about 15cm of new snow on an icy rain crust that was still a bit mushy. Denser new snow seemed to be bonding a bit to this crust, but as elevation increased the crust became harder, the snow lighter, and bonding was limited or non-existent. A faceted layer created an interface between 4F and 1F snow at 40cm depth. Snow was of consistent 1F hardness below this to the extent of the pit, approximately 120cm depth.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>As snow continued to fall, storm sluffs were of increasing concern. At lower elevations, the old snow surface had clearly been impacted by rain, leaving a slushy ice crust. The dense new snow seemed to be bonding to this breakable, mushy crust fairly well. At mid and upper elevations, snowfall was less dense and the crust was frozen more solidly, causing the new snow to sluff readily. Wind effects created small areas of slabbier storm snow.</p> <p>At a mid-elevation quick pit, we noted a weak layer about 40cm below the snow surface, a small layer of facets along a subtle change in snow hardness. Given the rapid and heavy loading of the snowpack, we did not test the reactivity of this layer and elected to simply avoid steep terrain as we weren't sure how much stress the layer would be subjected to as snow continued to accumulate throughout the day.</p>
New snow depth increased throughout the day as accumulations continued, but at 5600 feet, approximately 6" had already accumulated by 0700. Snow was quite dense below 7000 feet.