Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Minor cracking and sluffing in the new snow.</p>
Nice meeting John and Kristen up on the ridge. Drop an email with your contact info if you read this. Email Brett Kobernik
Good to chat with Joe and Aaron, thanks for the beta from your tour today.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Evidence of loose snow natural avalanches from earlier in the day were observed. We saw some instability within the new snow where we could not isolate columns in snowpit tests. The weakness was the interface between the few inches that fell on Saturday night and the newest snow from today. The height of the instability peaked mid morning during a period of high snowfall rates. It had already started to be less sensitive by the time we were ascending just after noon. Snowfall rates were increasing again late afternoon.</p> <p>Things were not 'hair trigger' out there this afternoon. You could get minor cracking and sluffing with slope cuts on the steeper slopes. Cracking would not propagate very far away from our skis. It seemed like quite manageable conditions if you were aware that you would get some snow moving on the steeper slopes.</p> <p>This instability we observed is typical for new snow where you will see a quick increase in sensitivity with cracking during high snowfall rates. These often decrease just as rapidly.</p> <p>Without any additional wind, the new snow instability should be fairly well behaved by Tuesday morning.</p>
Light DEEP powder on stout crust on all aspects we skied. Snow was almost too deep to ski low angle slopes. Bottom feeding on the stout crust on steeper slopes with over-the-head powder. A fatty powder ski was your friend today.