Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>My only concern in the areas was some of the fresh wind deposits on steep slopes along the upper ridges. We backed off going up one steeper ridge because of shallow, cracking, stiff wind drifts. It looked like many skiers and boarders were riding the wind slabs without triggering anything so it seems like they are settling out but combined with the steep, high-consequence terrain (lots of trees to hit) it kind of spooked me. We found lots of good turning on non-windloaded terrain. I was out for a day with friends so I did not take the time to dig any pits but probed with my ski pole for much of the day and the underlying snow seemed fairly solid and settled. </p> <p>Lots of surface hoar on the surface and the clear skies and cold temperatures are faceting all the surface snow on to of the rain crust so we will really have to pay attention to this layer after it gets buried. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>See comments above. Moderate danger rating is for fresh wind slabs along the wind exposed ridges. Everything else seems low danger. </p>
Not much to report avalanche-wise but I thought I would give a quick ob from an afternoon of skiing many of the slopes around and north of Mt. Aire and farther east down into Lambs Canyon. There's only about 2-6 inches of new powder on top of the rain crust from a few days ago. Below about 7,500-8,000' the rain crust is quite a bothersome zipper crust but above that elevation you don't feel it and the turning is quite nice on fast, shallow powder. I can't believe the number of people that have been skiing in that area. There's lots of tracks on most slopes but it's a huge area and it's easy to find places with untracked especially moving east on the ridge and descending into Lambs Canyon.