Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Moderate snow in the morning let up for a couple of hours in the late morning. In the afternoon, pulses of heavy snow returned adding several additional inches of snow. As we traveled up cardiff towards cardiac, we found light to moderate winds. While we did not observe any wind loading, we expected wind loaded terrain higher on the ridge. The new snow was very light density and didn't appear to be forming a cohesive slab in lower terrain. However, above 9,500 ft, heavier snowfall and winds seemed to tip the scales and we found numerous signs of instability. We turned around at 9,800 ft and expect avalanche danger would have increased with elevation. We would expect additional winds and snowfall to increase the danger in the coming days.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We traveled up to 9,800 feet near cardiac ridge and found up to 35cm of new low density snow on widespread very weak facets. The new snow was reactive in the upper reaches of cardiff. The new snow failed on the interface and, at times, on density changes within the snow. We saw shooting cracks propagating up to 50 ft and intentionally triggered a very small slide on a steep roll. The slide failed on the new snow facet interface. </p>