Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3139 m
Clear and calm. Crusts of varying thickness on all aspects and elevations except mid to high elevation NW-NE
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Probed around and dug a couple pits on the ridge a few hundred feet southeast of Lake Shot to get a feel for snow depth and how it correlates with weak layer strength. Most locations had depths of 240cm+; I dug down in one such spot (10500' NW) and found well-rounding facets under a 120cm hard slab. In another location--10300' NW, about a dozen feet NW of the ridge--I found lower snow depths (176cm) over substantially weaker snow; full profile below. The depth hoar layer at the bottom here propagated with lots of energy in a PST and the block slid off the column with speed despite only a 32 degree slope. Today underscored for me both the spatial variability of the current PWL and also how long it can take to heal a weak layer that had nearly a month to develop.</p> <p>Abundant rollerballs and wet loose activity from yesterday noted on aspects E-S-W at all elevations. I did not observe much fresh activity today, but I generally avoided these aspects.</p>