Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We did not notice any recent avalanches on our tour today, but we encountered numerous stiff wind slabs and we observed some cracking of a softer slab in a fairly sheltered area on a 25-30 degree slope.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I would expect to find wide spread wind slabs on the leeward side of slopes. During our tour we noticed some snow transport from the winds, however it seems that most of the available snow for transport moved around last night and was deposited already.</p>
The previous days weather had a huge effect on the snow down in the Abajos today. Yesterday warm weather produced a stout crust on top up the dense snow that fell earlier in the day. The crust was similar to a sun crust, and if I wasn't aware of the storm that rolled through the region yesterday I would have assumed that it was. It was hard to tell how much snow fell on top of the crust because the winds had wreaked havoc on any exposed terrain, scouring down to the crust in places and depositing stiff wind slabs in other areas, but we were able to find 4"-6" of soft low density snow sheltered areas.