Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Up to 10" of snow since yesterday morning. Winds were moderate out of the SW at ridgelines and moving snow. New wind slabs where we traveled were stubborn and did not produce shooting cracks or noticeable propagation around 9700'. Easy hand shears above 8500' showed a poor new/old interface but no cracking at upper elevations and only very isolated cracking on very steep rolls in middle elevation terrain where we were able to trigger a small avalanche. I suspect the sheltered middle-elevation, northerly terrain harbored a little surface hoar that has been reported in recent observations, as well as some graupel that came in with this latest storm.
See attached avalanche. In general the 8-10" that fell in the last 24 hours is a little upside down. Easy hand shears were produced in the top 10 inches from 8500 feet up to 9500 feet. SH observed at new/old interface with graupel throughout much of the storm snow.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 8000
- Recent Snowfall
- 25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Mix of rain to start the day, light scattered snow showers above 8000 feet, and periods of sun. SW winds were moderate at ridgelines and moving moderate amounts of snow.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1 R2
- Type
- SS
- Aspect
- N
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 8500 ft
Small storm slab avalanche that propagated in very steep terrain (just under 40 degrees) on a north-facing convex rollover. Subjectively, it felt a little stubborn and slow to get moving but it did propagate further than I expected - about 150 feet around the feature.