Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
Funky snow day here in the Abajos, a good day to just get out and dig a pit. We didn't get much snow from the last storm and what snow we did get has been blown away and sun baked. I have dug a few pits up at the ski area in the last few weeks; none were on a true north facing fully shaded slope. I was starting to feel tempted by the steeper tree covered north run at the ski area and wanted to see what was going on under the snow. To my surprise when we stuck the probe in we only found ~120-135cm of snow. This is significantly less than the last pit I dug on the other side of the ski area which had 175cm of snow. You really never know whats going on under the snow unless you do the work. I am considering the north facing terrain closed until we get another foot or more and the ECTs give no results. Stay safe out there.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>42cm of facets on the on the north facing slope that hasn't seen sun since October. We did a shovel sheer and an ECT. Shovel sheer was inconclusive due to an aspen branch. We got ECTP23 that failed on the facet layer. I was surprised by the snow depth on the north run. We had 175cm on the south run last week and only 125cm on the north run today. I would say that weak layer is still able to be impacted on the shady north facing slopes.</p>