Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>It's all out there right now, rapid loading of slopes by wind and new snow. Cracking and colapsing on a variety of aspects and elevations. multiple small windslabs triggered with ski cuts and cornice drops. Saw four or five lemons in a variety of snow profiles on multiple slopeswith varying aspect and elevation.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>See the video below, but the deep facet layers continue to be reactive in stability tests. I dug on this slope before the most recent series of storms about three weeks ago and had no test results, the rapid load has reawakened these sleeping monsters and all steep slopes with this structure are off limits in my mind. With additional load coming over the next few days I expect another widespread natural and human triggered avalanche cycle in the coming days. The numerous avalanches I've looked at in the last three days all seem unmanageable and highly likely to produce injuries or fatalities, the steep slopes deserve a wide berth.</p> <p>By 1pm the fresh windslabs were already 10-12" deep and reactive to ski cuts and cornice drops. They weren't propagating far but with the current weather forecast I predict these will rapidly increase in size and sensitivity. The big danger here is triggering a possibly manageable wind slab that then steps down into the deeper, scarier layers. </p>