Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No signs of instability noted today, surprisingly. Did not push into wind effected areas.</p>
Mindset today was stepping back with over an inch of water in less than 24 hours. There was a lot of waiting around in traffic to finally revert to plan B and head up Mill D. Folks were pretty spread out and behaving themselves around consequential terrain. No tracks on Reynolds East Face. Minimal usage along the ridges, Toms and Weathering, and did not see so much as a sluff in terrain skied. That being said, I stuck to mostly avalanche resistant terrain, with the exception of one steeper SE facing slope that seemed to have good structure.
Avoided steep north. Waiting on the next significant load and the new year to begin stepping out cautiously.
Photos:
1. Reynolds, untouched
2. Powder Park 3 poking through the clouds during one brief period of visibility
3+4. Small cornice growth and subsequent slope tests
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The potential for dry loose on steep terrain was there today, and I did not push slope angles on north facing terrain. On a southeast face off the shoulder of Reynolds I placed several slope cuts on the 35 degree slope, yet it did not entrain much. Some cornice growth was notable on Reynolds just above the main east face. Along the adjoining ridge towards Weathering Heights, some small corni were building and were easily dropped, but did not produce anything.</p>
Sublime velvet. Low density on top of a medium density spongy base. The nature of this storm lent itself well for filling in the old tracks and beat up snow surfaces from the prior week of wind and rime.