Quick report
- Aspect
- West
- Red Flags
- Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3322 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>I broke trail up Laurel Highway today and got several collapses. The first in the lowest of the Laurel Meadows. I dug a quick pit here to try and identify what collapsed. No crusts in this location, but there are facets down 35cm on top of 1F density rounds. And then I got several audible collapses in upper Laurel Meadow. It must have collapsed about five times as I worked my way up and across it. Pretty wild. I even collapsed the flat meadow on my way to the Gold Basin weather station. Dug a pit on a WSW aspect in Upper Julie's with a mix of crusts and facets. Got a CT 12 RP Q2 down 30cm in this pit. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>In my travels today I experienced mostly calm winds and did not see any blowing snow. I was skiing in mid elevations today, and topped out above tree line only once. Slopes facing N and E were visibly loaded. The forecast is for strong winds again tonight so this problem will linger for a few more days.</p> <p>I still think there is a danger of triggering a persistent slab avalanche right now. I have confirmed persistent weak layers on aspects facing West and Northwest. I haven't investigated other slopes thoroughly enough to say that it's not a problem elsewhere, but it seems people aren't experiencing the same collapsing and failures that I have seen on W and NW slopes. In upper Laurel Meadow, where I experienced about five audible collapses, there are facets underneath a stout crust. The failure I got in Upper Julie's was on 1mm facets on top of a Knife hard crust 30cm down. The trend over the last few days is that the active weak layers are on sunnier slopes at mid and low elevations. </p>
Five inches at the Gold Basin stake today. Low density powder.