Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2926 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We had several major collapses on our ascent route, including a large one where my partner and I both dropped about an inch. We viewed several avalanches that presumably happened naturally during the storm and triggered one remotely by skinning along a ridge. See separate avalanche entries for more info.</p>
Toured on Knob Mountain today, at elevations ranging from 7,000 to 10,150 feet. Snowpack is unstable and very sensitive on north aspects. Our snowpit revealed the problematic layer that has caused the many avalanches we saw today, which is the bottom layer of weak faceted snow from the October storms. It was between 10 and 15 cm deep in the areas we traveled today. While skinning along a ridgeline we remotely triggered an avalanche with a 3 foot high crown at least 100 feet away from us.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>All avalanches we observed failed on the thin layer of weak faceted snow from the October snow storms. Now that we have a 3 foot slab of snow on top of it this persistent weak layer is very sensitive.</p> <p>Drifts from strong winds during and after the storm are still present but much less sensitive than the past few days.</p>
New snow from the past few days has settled to about a foot in the areas we traveled today, with the denser snow below compacting to form a nice base. By mid-afternoon south and west aspects were starting to become damp due to the warm temperatures and lack of wind.