Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Many red flags observed today after the recent storm delivered around a foot of dense wind blown snow which overloaded the weak snowpack resulting in a pretty widespread natural avalanche cycle in Gold Hill. </p>
Several photos of the natural avalanche cycle that I came across in Gold Hill today. All the boxes checked for: steep, thin and rocky with a poor snowpack structure that was overloaded with the weekend storm.
The riding conditions are improving with these warm dense storms helping to build a base.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The persistent weak layer received a heavy dense storm with lots of wind and finally reached the breaking point and many slopes I observed in Gold Hill avalanched naturally. The common theme was steep, thin and rocky.</p> <p>The winds today were steady and quite strong from the southwest and blowing and drifting was observed along the high exposed peaks. </p>
The weekend storm which added up to about 10-12" of medium dense snow has really helped build a base and improve the riding conditions. The snow was already damp this morning at the trailhead and conditions were getting thin on the highway riding home.