Quick report
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No real red flags to note. Noted a thin (0.5cm or less) stripe of what appeared to be facets atop the sub-surface crust. However, surface snow was soft and not terribly cohesive. The usual informal tests--hand shears, stomping switchbacks, stepping above the skinner, test slopes, etc.--did not elicit any propagation or significant cracking. It all felt kinda "low energy"--slabs not cohesive enough to fracture but surface snow too cohesive/damp to really sluff. There were a few tiny rollerballs underfoot on our exit around 1300 due to the warming temps, but nothing of note. Given all of the above, we didn't stop to dig and kept it under 35 degrees to good effect in the heavy powder pressing into the dampness beneath.</p>
Snowpack
10-15cm of soft snow sat atop the old, damp snow surface, accumulating another few cm before the snow turned off around 1000. This underlying damp surface turned to unsupportive crust by 9000ft or so. The sub-surface crust was not present on protected northerlies, which instead had a firm layer about 50cm down.