Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>14" of snow earlier in the week was blown into slabs of wind drifted snow at upper elevations resulting in a few, small, natural avalanches. In our travels today we found some non-reactive, slabby conditions and some thick wind crusts. Most wind loading is at the highest elevations on N-NE aspects. We did not venture into this terrain, but in the photo above you can see the obvious drifted areas. I suspect these wind slabs have mostly gained strength, but I would continue to be suspicious of them, especially in areas of consequential terrain. </p>
Snowpack
14" of new snow fell between Sunday night and Monday, and with a decent amount of cloud cover, conditions have been excellent the last few days. They are still quite good, especially on northerly aspects below about 12,000'. Above that elevation, good snow can still be found but you have to be a little more choosy with your aspect, as a period of moderate NW winds has done a little damage to windward slopes, and leeward slopes have sustained a fair bit of wind loading. A strong sun today hit all exposed slopes and this time of year, even low angle northerlies are not spared. Expect all but sheltered, and high elevation northerly aspcets to have a crust tomorrow.
Wind damaged snow on upper elevation W-NW aspects:
In the photo below you can see where the snow gets good in this NW facing couloir. The upper portion above the choke was pretty wind wrecked. It got progressively better after that. The low angle run out was getting damp and will likely have a crust tomorrow:
The best conditions exist right around treeline and just above on north facing slopes:
In the photo below you can see that N-NE aspects hold the most snow and they are the least wind damaged. They are however, the aspects that have received the most wind loading, and you can observe pillowy, wind drifted snow at the highest elevations, particularly on the NE face of Mount Tukuhnikivatz or Tuk (pronounced touque):