Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
A weekend in the woods… -Small pockets of wind drifted snow on specific terrain features were generally unreactive to the weight of snowmobiles or skiers/riders on North through Easterly aspects between 5500-6500’. -Prevailing winds out the SW on Friday night transported new snow onto specific terrain features that were easy to identify and avoid. -Found excellent snowmobiling and touring conditions in the area. We had short cracks from our skis and board tips while walking on ridge lines on northeast aspect. Had one larger crack that released about 50ft of wind loaded snow just below the hornet wx station. (See photo)
Weather
- Air Temp
- 20-28
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- n/a
- Recent Snowfall
- 8
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
-Fri: S-1 to S1 snow left 6-8cm of new snow across the area. Moderate winds after 8 pm following snow showers. -Sat: Mostly cloudy skies with occasional fog, moderate temps, light winds on ridge tops. -Sun: Mostly cloudy skies with cloud deck around 8,000 feet. Moderate temps, no wind
Snowpack
-Found generally stable conditions on various aspects. Southerly slopes harbored a small sun crust below 6000’ that drove us to the other side of the compass. Northerly aspects held great powder with a supportable base with depths between 120-140cm. -2 cm layer of decomposing faceted crystals about 75 cm below the surface. Small storm interfaces in the upper portion of the snowpack were also unreactive during instability tests. -Friday: 6-8cm of new snow during early afternoon with moderate temps and no wind until later in the evening. Winds out the SW transported this new snow onto Northeasterly aspects along ridge lines. -Saturday: winds dissipated leaving isolated pockets of wind drifted snow on NE aspects on specific terrain features 10-15 cm thick. -Sunday: found more pockets of wind slabs on specific features on NE aspects, but were easy to identify and avoid.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AR
- Elevation
- 6700 ft