Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We dug a quick pit while we were out and found the same small facets at the bottom of the snow pack that Dave found yesterday. We should all keep an eye these as we get more snow and our base becomes more complex. Check out Dave's observation from yesterday for some more detail on this.</p>
We found some great skiing today, but everyone should remember that we have just enough snow to ski on and their are still plenty of ground hazards to watch out for until we get some more snow. Ski with caution, especially when in the trees and maybe wait a bit before you go diving into the northwoods.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The first significant snow we received during the third week of November had some time to facet before we got our season starting storms at the end of the month. We did not observe any other red flags on our tour, but every one heading out into the backcountry should keep these ugly little crystals in mind when making decisions in avalanche terrain. </p>
Great powder skiing exists on the north half of the compass. Yesterdays sun in the mountains created a melt feeze crust on southerly facing slopes as well as a number of pinwheels that rolled down steeper slopes that were hit by the sun. We also notice an abundance of surface hoar on our way into Gold Basin, including some shorter crystals that had formed on top of the melt freeze crust that had formed overnight.