Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
The coverage is improving but there are still shark rocks lurking just below the surface. At least they are big and sharp.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Climbed cautiously to the bottom of the birthday chutes, concerned about overhead exposure. Did a quick block isolation with my pole and the block failed about 70 cm deep before I completely isolated it, leaving a ragged shear plane but a solid enough block to grab and pull out. Out of curiosity I did an ECT and got no propagation, but I then gently levered the block with my hands and it popped out with lots of enthusiasm, failing on facets at the ground. Total depth at that point was 105 cm. Possible to trigger something failing at the old snow interface that could step down to the ground? I didn't go any higher to test that theory.</p> <p>The wind was swirling around low in the drainage, but there was a lot of spindrift coming off the ridge and looking like it was depositing in the Tri chutes - E - SE wind? The BDay chutes had a lot of texture, looking pretty wind-affected.</p>