Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
Dug a pit on a NE aspect at 9880' in Upper Red Pine. HS was 180cm and mostly right side up except for the early winter facet layer that was 4F hardness and 20cm above the ground. PST had no results on this weak layer. DT test had a Q2 fracture on 22 at this weak layer. Facets on the ground seem to be rounding, grain size is between 2-3mm.
Other pertinent obs include a few inches of settlement around trees, a D3 avalanche in Lake Shot from last week that broke some trees and put debri into the middle of the lake, and no loose wet avalanches observed across the road on the solars since clouds moved in earlier than expected today. I probed 25-30 times checking HS at 10k' on N aspects and got depths from 175-210cm.
Clear sky and mid-30s at the White Pine Trailhead this morning. Clouds rolled in around 11am with light winds out of the SW. Afternoon weather was overcast with almost no wind and temps were trending cooler.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Moderate seems to be spot on with the P Slab in places where early season snow exists. Lower likelihood than a week or two ago, but the consequence remains the same. Still not worth it for me, since structure trumps everything else and I've been looking at a weak layer at the bottom of the snowpack all week.</p>