Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2835 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The snowpack was quiet most of the day with no cracking and only one collapse.</p>
Between 8K and 9500 ft. snow totals were 3-4 feet. Not much of a slab down at lower elevations and very unsupportable on a sled and, at times, on skis. Boot penetration to the ground at all elevations traveled. I noticed a fair amount a spacial variability in the thickness and density of the slab sitting on the weak basal snow.
I had finished digging my snowpit and had a clean pit wall prepared when my partner stepped off his board and collapsed a large piece of snow with a very loud whoopf. I was looking at the pit wall when this happened and watched the slab collapse on the deeper persistent weak layer.
I really don't see this layer getting better anytime in the near future. Avalanches are just going to get more unpredictable and larger as we add more weight to the snowpack. I'll keep playing the slope angle game and continue to keep slope angles below 30° and be conscious of what's above or connected to me when I'm traveling.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>There are multiple PWLs in the snowpack where I was. The deeper PWL is very worrisome, especially as we start adding more weight to the pack and the slab becomes more cohesive and connected. </p> <p>The new snow did not bond well to the old snow surface. I got clean shears with shovel shear tests and CTs but that layer never propagated across an extended column. Possible that it settles out with time. </p>
Rightside up storm snow. Very low density snow on top of increasingly dense fist hard snow.