Quick report
We are back to a winter environment at alpine and snowpack is growing which is welcome news to all of us. In general no recent avalanches were observed and skiing was good, outlook will be changing as new storms approach throughout this week. If you are out skiing or riding and observe any avalanches or signs of instability please send us your observations. Have fun in the new snow and keep an eye out for fresh windslab on North faces toward ridgetops. Lets hope cold air wins out and precip remains as snow!
No obvious signs of instability were observed by us and stability and travel tests were unresponsive. Due to moderate winds and new snow amounts there is potential for some more sensitive wind slab at higher elevations and ridge tops.Weather
- Air Temp
- 28
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 300
- Recent Snowfall
- 13
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Moderate winds from the Southeast, started with pretty heavy snowfall followed by a break in precip.
Snowpack
The current snowpack has a variety of melt freeze crusts and well bonded rounds. Anywhere from 30-50 cms of new snow from our last two storms sits on top of an extremely strong melt freeze crust. Within those most recent layers there is a zipper crust with a temperatrure gradient that could promote faceting but most likely will not if air temperatures stay in the low 30's/high 20's as forecasted. We will continue to monitor these conditions. It seems highly unlikely to trigger anything below the strong melt freeze crust with no signs of deep instability.