Quick report
- Cracking
- Observed
- Collapsing
- Observed
New snow and moderate-strong winds created deeper slabs on primarily north-east facing aspects, but wind speeds were high enough to form drifts mid-slope on atypical aspects. The snowpack voiced its concerns as I approached the northern side of the compass with an audible collapse and remotely triggered avalanche. The Valentine's Day buried surface hoar is struggling to handle the weight of the new snow and is easily tipped over the edge. Shooting cracks and whoomphing may not be abundant around the compass, but snowpack tests continue to produce propagating results on this concerning weak layer. Slab depths have reached a height where an avalanche failing on any one of the buried weak layers would be large to very large.
Limited cracking isolated to just between skis. Experienced an audible collapse on a flat ridgeline with steep northeast-facing terrain. Further down the ridge, remotely triggered an avalanche that failed on the buried Valentines Day surface hoar.Weather
- Air Temp
- 26
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 3,500-4,000
- Recent Snowfall
- 15
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Periods of S2 snowfall in the morning. Brief lull in precipitation intensity around 1:30, then S1 for the rest of the day. low level clouds made for poor visibility. Moderate swirling winds, but the primary direction was southwest.
Snowpack
4 to 6 inches of new snow were measured in the previous 24 hours, with precipitation intensity increasing in the afternoon. Moving up the mountain, there was a notable density change in the new snow between 5,800'-6,000', transitioning to lighter density snow. I traveled mostly on S-W facing aspects, and could feel a melt freeze crust below the new snow that extended all the way up to my top elevation near 6,700'. The melt freeze crust fluctuated in thickness, but on average was 2cm and 1F. No evidence of crust on NW-NE aspects. Winds were moderate for the majority of the day, but there were new drifts mid-slope and in treed areas, reflecting higher wind speeds overnight.
On a W/SW facing aspect at 6,450', the height of snow was 220cm. A slab that was 53cm thick was sitting on top of the V Day buried surface hoar, which averaged 6mm-9mm in size. CT3SP 15cm down on melt freeze crust, CT12SP 53cm down on V Day. ECTP13 @ V Day.
Limited isolated cracking between skis on southerlies, with no other signs of instability. Signs of instability increased moving around to more north-facing, favored aspects.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 6500 ft
Avalanche released on a northeast aspect near 6,500' from a distance while traversing along a flat ridge line. The avalanche initially failed on a layer of buried surface hoar that got preserved on Valentine's Day.