Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
New snow instabilities were the main issue today. Generally they were just loose, dry sloughs and very soft slabs.
Cornices continue to be sensitive and are very large in some place. Like, really large.
Excellent conditions right now. The Uinta snowpack is as deep as I've seen it and the storms keep coming.
Considerable danger on wind drifted slopes but generally manageable. Not fully convinced we're completely out of the water with our persistent slab problem but feeling like places with a deep pack are pretty solid in that respect.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The new snow wasn't bonding well with the old snow surface. The new wind drifted snow was easy to ski cut and was was only forming very soft slabs that broke up as they slid down the slope. Easy to mitigate and manage and very predictable. With forecasted winds meant to be easing up, the danger should be decreasing. </p> <p>Areas with a thinner snowpack, like repeater paths, are the most suspect as far as this problem goes. There still exists poor structure in areas with a deeper pack but pit test results have been reflecting a strengthening snowpack. We dug a pit on a 40°+ slope in a repeater path today and, although we got propagation in our ECT, it failed with very hard effort and without a lot of energy. The weakness was the snow that wasn't stripped clean in previous slides. </p> <p>Feeling like there was not enough water weight added to the snowpack to activate these deeper weaknesses and with not a lot wind and additional snow forecasted I would guess the danger will not change much in this regard. Nonetheless, an avalanche breaking in a deep persistent weak layer would not have a good outcome. </p>
PaPow! Snow depths got deeper as the day went on.