Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Cracking of snow at a variety of depths - shallow, top few inches; fresh wind drifts, up to 6" deep and new small cornices.</p>
Just one of the many variations of poor snow pack layering on upper elevation, northerly facing slopes. Other areas were almost double the depth, but still ski pole basket to the ground. North is downright spooky, and I expect loading from tonight's and tomorrow's winds and snow to finally overload the weak layers.
A world of snow pack difference between shady, northerly facing slopes, all with buried facet layers, and sunny, south facing, where it is new snow on dirt, rocks and grass.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Focus is on northwest, north and north easterly facing slopes, all of which have one or more layers of facets buried in the snow pack - a poor snow pack just waiting for a larger load and denser slab. To quote Paul Santana "a very fragile snow pack" - punchy in places, lots of spacial variable. I expect the next storm may do what the last storm didn't - create a more wide spread avalanche cycle, with the wind the key player. </p> <p>Deeper slides may be triggered by <a href="http://www.fsavalanche.org/Encyclopedia.aspx">step downs</a> tomorrow - a smaller slide traveling a short distance and triggering a deeper slide.</p> <p>This afternoon winds the were just getting started, shallow wind drifts to 6" along the ridges, cracky and we were able to trigger a few from a distance. A lot of snow available for transport tonight and tomorrow - forecast moderate southwesterly winds tonight and tomorrow will be efficient at loading north and northeasterly facing slopes. Old snow surface of low density snow will act as a weak layer.</p>