Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>There was a minor amount of wind loading occurring during the day right along the ridges. Poor snowpack structure remains a huge concern. It's not hard to find areas with numerous layers of faceted snow. I got stuck on my machine once today at around 9000' and was waist-deep in sugary facets trying to get it out.</p>
Photo below shows the upside down unstable structure in the upper layers of the snowpack.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The majority of the recent avalanche activity involves two layers of snow sitting on top of the crust from the warm up in Feb. The first layer is low density snow from Feb 7. This layer consists of broken particles viewed under a scope. I did not note any faceting of these grains. The layer on top of that, the slab, is higher density snow from Feb 13, 14, 15. This is your classis "strong snow over weak snow" set up (SEE PHOTO BELOW) and the avalanche activity speaks for itself. It is still noticeable on skis as you can still feel a slight inversion in the upper layers of the snowpack. The lower density snow from the 7th should settle and stabilize in another few days. Places where you still could trigger something with this layering is anywhere the wind has recently formed drifts or slabs, mainly on the more east facing terrain.</p> <p>Lots of loose sugary faceted snow all over the place. It's going to be a while until this stuff stabilizes, if it ever does this season. It's not hard to find it. Just step off your skis or machine and try walking around. You'll be waist deep in facets in many location, just like I was today.</p> <p>The key here is to have patience. You can't outsmart this stuff by thinking you know a certain steep slope won't avalanche. If it doesn't, it's just dumb luck. Trust me, I've seen this stuff for years and it will trick the best of us. All you can do is wait until we see more stabilization.</p>
The new snow from the weekend storm is fairly dense. I definitely wouldn't call it powder but it was easy and fun ski conditions. Many locations have been hit by the wind but you can easily find areas with nice turning conditions,