Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall
- Elevation
- 2499 m
- Slope Angle
- 20°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Soooo much new snow. The Christmas miracle of 2016. I got the feeling that with a few more inches a natural cycle was ready to go off if it had not already. That said imo it will only involve the new snow.... all 20" inches of it. Don't know whta the wind was really up to here. I did not make the ridge.</p>
I'm going considerable tomorrow with the assumption of not being on wind loaded or under wind loaded terrain and the occurrence of a natural cycle today/tonight.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>There is a lot of new snow for the wind to move about.</p>
Snow depth at the trail head was only 4-6" at the start of the day. Surprising because there was a solid 12" on my driveway. Around 7k in elevation the snow became much deeper. At the upper meadow it was a solid 16 to 24" and about 8-10 in the trees.
Density change in new snow was very responsive to ski or ski pole cuts along the walls of the trail (1st pic).
Pit dug at the upper meadow reveald total snow depth of 57". Within the newer snow (since the last rain/snow event) you can see 3 distinct weak layers. And then there is the density change in the really fresh snow which is what is reactive. The buried facets will not exist on steep or wind effected terrain (second pic).