Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2682 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We found spotty surface hoar and NSF today which checks the box above for poor snowpack structure. The surface hoar (photo below) seems very spatially variable. Seems like out the the wind there wasn't all that much new snow (~8") and it wasn't all that slabby in areas travelled today. In the wind, it was a different story with plenty of obvious wind slabs. We saw another group ski nearby and only create loose avalances, suggesting not enough of a slab had formed. The surface hoar in these windy spots was probably also destroyed.</p>
Buried surface hoar was easily visible in the photo above. As noted above, this is probably high spatially varible.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Strong winds from prior days had created obvious wind slabs in exposed areas. This will increase with more snow and wind.</p> <p>With more snow and wind on the way, more cohesive slabs will likely form above weaknesses created from the past week of high pressure.</p>
South and west aspects had a little melt freeze crust which made the skiing feel a little dust on crust-ish. Elsewhere old snow was less noticeable and skied well.