Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Though sporadic, we did observed periods of heavy snowfall and strong winds (~60mph). On 3 isolated slopes, we observed shooting cracks and kicked off the top 15cm of soft slab that had begun developing. As we continue to follow along with the saga of this year's snowpack, we are not fooled into thinking things have healed yet. In fact we're feeling quite the opposite. We see more snow being added to a very poor snowpack structure with the slabs continuing to build up on top. </p>
What an awesome day to be up in the mountains and witness the sheer power of nature! Found some awesome conditions in the sheltered low-angle areas and had a ball out there today. No pit today but a few hand shears and plenty of digging all the way to the bottom of the snowpack to retrieve the snow machines. Photo below shows shooting crack estimated at 100 yards. Video shows just how serious the wind and snow condtions were at times.
Small avalanche in the new snow observed on this small, isolated slope. Estimated at 100' wide x 3 - 4" deep.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The wind was absolutely wild up there today! The large tree tops violently bent and swayed as snow rapidly whipped across the snowscape. The wind was so loud at points that it sounded like a close-proximity jet plane was flying by. That was the strongest wind-loading I've laid witness to in quite some time.</p> <p>We observed about 10- 15cm of new snow in the short 4 hours we were riding today. We managed to trigger a few small, surface avalanches in the new snow on isolated slopes that were ~ 30-35 degrees. The most impressive was one that cracked ~ 100yards across through the new snow. The snow continued to fall as we departed. The persistent weak layer avalanche problem is still very present as well and we'd place it highest up on the list of problems to continue to be extra mindful of.</p>
The snow that fell was varied. We observed a mix of graupel, stellars, and other mixed precipitation particles. We certainly had wind board and wind slabs developing quickly up there today but we managed to also find plenty of soft, deep powder in the protected areas. We observed instability in the new snow on a number of isolated slopes with a great propensity for widespread cracking. The snow surface was mostly supportable but we did manage to punch through from time to time (both with snow machines and boot penetration) and got sent all the way to the bottom of the snowpack, where the large faceted grains were waiting for us.