Quick report
- Cracking
- widespread
I did not need to travel very high today to confirm the presence of wind slabs. New cornice formation was evident from the highway on exposed ridgelines and even sheltered areas harbored a wind affected surface. Winds were steady at moderate with strong gusts from the SW during my time in the field. The amount of wind loading suggested the winds have been transporting snow for 12+ hours.
Shooting cracks observed in lee terrain being actively wind loaded. Cracking also observed in sheltered areas near and below treeline due to harder cohesive snow above softer storm snow.Weather
- Air Temp
- 22
- Cloud Cover
- obscured
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 5000
- Recent Snowfall
- 40
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Small squalls would bring moderate to strong gusts and light precipitation throughout the AM.
Snowpack
Evidence of wind affect extended well below treeline and was present even in traditionally sheltered areas and on all aspects I travelled on. Roughly 6" of overnight snow was being actively transported by wind. At 7500' on a gentle north slope I observed 230cms (7.5ft) of snow and 50cms (1.5ft) of total storm snow sitting on top of the melt freeze crust buried earlier this week. I did not receive any propagation at this specific location, though it was very evident that the storm snow has yet to bond to the crust. The top ~10cms of surface snow was becoming harder due to wind effect. On a leeward ridgeline at 7800' it was very easy to initiate shooting cracks on small test slopes.