Quick report
A whole lot of new snow has changed the game of travelling in the Western Smokys. We consistently found over 3 ft (100cm) of snow once away from the drainage mouths and above 7500 ft. Additionally, the Christmas Eve crust is stout and supportable for most forms of winter transportation - which kept us out of the tangles and brush when off trail today.
We saw evidence of wide-spread wind-redistribution as we gained in elevation and nearer to ridgelines. Although we did not observe any obvious signs of instability, we avoided recently wind-loaded slopes - where it seemed the new snow probably formed a more cohesive slab.
No obvious signs of instability, but we did spot a couple of older avalanche crowns (in avalanche section).Weather
- Air Temp
- -5 to 15
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 9000
- Recent Snowfall
- 30
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Clear and cold conditions with light variable winds prevailed today after the last couple of weeks of gray and storming.
Snowpack
Every slope we travelled on was buried under 10-20 inches (25-50cm) of settled soft new snow. Below that new snow, we found a variety of crusts:
Below 8k ft: The Christmas Eve crust is STOUT. It acts like "new ground" and is supportable to snow machines and skis
8k - 9k ft: The Christmas Eve crust thins out by 9k with small grain facets above/below the crust interface
Above 9k ft: No obvious upper snowpack crust with 3-4.5 ft (100-150cm) of holiday snow above the 12/5-12/15 crust/facet complex
In a quick pit at 9100 ft on a NW aspect, we found non propagating test results (resistant planar) on multiple mid-storm density changes from the holiday storm event.
Avalanche
- Size
- D2
- Count
- 2
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 9500 ft
Large natural avalanche crown with semi-fresh debris