Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
- Collapsing
- specific
Cracking and collapsing were significantly decreased from my observations in other zones over the past week, but still present. I experienced 3 smaller (5-6' radius) collapses, and only one large (100') one on a broader, more open slope. I only experienced one shooting crack, that propagated to knock snow off a tree ~10' away from me.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
A cloudy inversion had me leaving the truck in an almost white-out, with 10-15ft of visibility. A walk through the calm, cold, and wet from 6400' brought me above the clouds — clear skies, still below freezing but warmer temperatures, and drier calm winds up at 7100'. Cold and clear are still the name of the game, and weak layer-building weather is in full force.
Snowpack
Traveling from the car at 6400', there was widespread and well-developed surface hoar through all terrain I traveled to my high point of the day. Feathers were anywhere from 3mm to 1cm+ in length. Snow surfaces at lower elevations in the midst of the inversion were slightly noticeably moister than after climbing out of the clouds at 7100'. Surface hoar size increased through this gain in elevation. HS from 7100' to 7800' varied between 50-60cm, reaching 90-95cm on slopes I traveled above 8200'. Travel along the moraine into the mountains provided more isolated, and smaller (5-6' radius) collapsing than in other areas last week. Once reaching the mouth of the drainage, I did set off a large, rumbling collapse that traveled over 100' across a planar slope.
Digging a pit on an E-facing slope near 8200' where HS was 92cm, stability tests revealed ECTP9, ECTP12, and CPST 20/100 to END all on the 11/30 interface. The overlaying slab on top of this interface is well-developed and has much cohesion in the Central Sawtooths, despite the period of high pressure that has led to more extensive facetting/weakening of the slab in other zones. Surfaces where I travelled were all soft, even on solar aspects due to near-surface facetting.
Avalanche
I only observed 2 small (D1) wet loose point release slides off of rock bands on solar slopes in the alpine.