Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Collapsing
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Collapsing and cracking was localized today, but a good indicator that the snowpack is receiving some good stress from the new snow. We got a couple collapses with shooting cracks as we made our way up the low angled west facing meadows of Noriega's. When we reached the top we walked the ridge above the steep NNE face of Noriega's. We experienced quite a bit of whoomphing and collapsing with small shooting cracks as we walked the ridge line. Definitely plenty of energy in the snowpack on that face. We maintained our distance from the steep rollover, but my guess is that with the weight of a skier that face would slide. It did not appear to be wind loaded, the weight of the new snow was enough to make it sensitive. Snowfall was heavy this morning, and tonight we are forecast 4 to 8 inches and 6 to 10 tomorrow. The scales seemed tipped right now and things could be tricky tomorrow with additional snowfall.</p>
This is what the top three inches of snow looked like today, lots of graupel, very loose.
Small cracks shooting out from our skis. Loud whoomphing associated with collapses on the ridge line.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>As mentioned above, the surface snow today was very loose and filled with lots of graupel. It's rare to see graupel accumulate as deep as it was this morning. I would expect loose snow sluffs on steep terrain on all aspects. Furthermore this could be our next weak layer if we receive the snow that is currently forecasted. </p> <p>In a lot of places today the surface snow was too loose to behave like a slab. However I found some variation in the surface snow as we traveled, and in some spots the new snow was starting to take on slab like properties. Shooting cracks in the snow like the ones we saw today are a good indication of slab formation. </p>
8 to 10 inches of new snow today. A lot of graupel fell with this most recent snow. The upper three inches contained a lot of graupel. This made for a very loose surface layer. If we get dense or more cohesive snow on top of today's surface I would expect it to act as a weak layer. We kept our slope angles low today, but I would expect sluffing and point release slides within the new snow on steeper terrain.