Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Rapid Warming
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The foot-or-more of new snow seemed to bond quite well to the damper, warmer crusts below because the storm came in warm. But the main problem was wind slabs in upper elevation, wind affected terrain. In a couple places, I elected to break my own trail instead of following a previous uptrack that crossed an obvious wind slab that was slabby and cracking. As usual, always avoid recent deposits of wind drifted snow on steep slopes. They were quite easy to see from their smooth, rounded shape and their slabby feel. They should settle out fairly quickly unless they were deposited on previously near-surface faceted snow that remains cold. I felt comfortable on most slopes that were not wind affected. </p>
Snowpack
We skied several aspects off the ridge between Mill D North and Beartrap, south, north, west facing slopes. We thought we would be able to sneak in one run on straight south facing before the off-and-on sun warmed things up too much. The upper elevations were still pretty good but dense and sometimes wind blown but the lower half of the run to the road was quickly turning into mashed potatoes. March sun is strong and snow doesn't last long. We had to quickly switch to shady aspects. North facing aspects were better but still a bit denser than we liked. The new snow was damper and denser on the bottom, as you would expect with a storm that came in so warm. That moisture quickly infected the upper part of the snowpack, which was deposited after the cold front and colder temperatures. The upper elevations had quite a bit of wind drifting during the storm (see below).