Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2438 m
- Slope Angle
- 29°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Still finding poor structure in thinner snowpack areas, but there currently is not a stronger slab on top of the PWL where I was traveling today.</p>
Mt. Aire/Lambs Canyon is typically a thinner snowpack area and it didn't disappoint as I found widespread weak snow below 8,500' (my highest elevation.) The pit profile shown above shows the poor structure, but overall there isn't a strong and connected slab on top of the facets, so the PWL problem is dormant (for now). But this is the type of shallow terrain which will be more problematic once we put a load on top.
Photos snowpit and profile.
Photos of
- tracks on Mt. Aire
- widespread sastrugi
- raised tracks in Lambs Canyon
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Pencil-hard wind slabs 5-15 cms (2-6") thick, sitting on top of a layer of preserved faceted snow. I jumped on several wind-loaded slopes and despite the weak snow underneath the slab would only crack around my skis and not propagate. </p>
Well, at least uphill travel is easy.
HS (height of snow):
6,500' 45 cms
7,000' 60 cms
8,000' 90 cms
Wind-affected snow is above 7,200'
On slopes that aren't wind-affected, the snow surface is faceted and will be a potential weak layer with any load of new snow and/or wind-drifted snow.