Quick report
Variable wind carried snow onto many aspects at middle elevations. While we found poor snowpack structure throughout our tour, we did not encounter a slab with enough cohesiveness to create propagation in weak faceted snow below. Numerous point release sluffs were observed along Highway 12 as well as one small slab avalanche. Based on today's observation, I would surmise that in upper elevations, wind slabs can be found in many locations and be much more sensitive.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 7
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 23
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Temperatures were cold but above freezing. A light wind from the northeast blew throughout the day that would occasionally catch and carry lightweight surface snow. It was apparent that wind blew much harder from the east overnight. There was no precipitation, and the sun was breaking through the clouds.
Snowpack
The average depth of snow on south and west aspects from 5000-5600 feet is 2-3 feet.
We dug a pit on a northwest aspect around 5600'. In this pit we found a fairly soft slab sitting above weak faceted snow. We performed two extended column tests; the first yielded no results, and the second yielded a moderate non-propagating result within the snow from the storm we received last week (ECTX and ECTN15 respectively). In this pit, the slab lacked the cohesiveness to create propagation; however, the structure exists for a persistent slab avalanche.
It was apparent that wind blew from a variety of directions overnight. Snow had been carried and deposited onto the south and west faces of terrain features - even in fairly wind sheltered areas - indicating a wind from the north and east. However, riming was also observed on the south and west sides of trees, indicating wind from the south and west.
Near the same elevation as the visitor's center (5200'), a small layer of facets could be found underneath very soft new and recent snow on south and west aspects.
Avalanche
I observed multiple point release avalanches along south and east facing road cuts along Highway 12 down to 3500'. These avalanches released sometime during the day. I also observed one small slab avalanche that likely occured within the last 24 hours along a south facing road cut around 4500'.