Snowpack

Observation: Moab

Travis NaumanMoab
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Observation photo 1

Quick report

Aspect
Northwest
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Elevation
3414 m
Slope Angle
22°
Red Flags Comment
<p>Still have some persistent weak layers and lots of areas with wind loading. We continued to get collapses most of the day on all aspects.</p>

It is surprising how much faceted snow there was in this deep profile. The result was perhaps less reactive than I expected with all the collapsing we experienced touring. However, if you did trigger the fracture that propagated in this test, it is a big slap (59 cm) that could step down even lower in the profile. Seems like things will start to stabilize if the weather stays calm, but it might take a some time.

Snowpack

Instability Comment
<p>The wind has moved around a lot of snow in complicated patterns over the last two storm cycles, be aware of wind slabs even down below timberline in some areas.</p> <p>There are still a couple of sleeper layers out there. On the west face we decided to evaluate there were facets above an old sun crust and then facets below that crust. </p>

Fun powder day. Sunny faces started getting sticky and will be crusted tomorrow.