Quick report
Storm totals increased significantly as we got close to the Ruby Crest, up to about 10". The most reactive slopes were those where new snow and wind drifting formed soft slabs over the old, weak bedsurfaces (in gullies and concave features facing east to northeast), and triggered slides would gain more volume than you might expect because they were plowing to the ground through the old facets. Travel advice felt like a hybrid of wind slab/ storm slab as we approached the Ruby Crest above 11,500' because slabby snow felt more widespread, though our avalanche results as we descended were only in cross-loaded features.
Only minor cracking observed on our way up and by stomping around above a few steep pitches. Ski cuts on steep, crossloaded gullies facing east or northeast produced soft slabs breaking on the old, weak bedsurfaces. We didn't get any direct feedback underfoot until getting into start zones, perhaps because the storm interface is considerably weaker in steep terrain than low angle terrain.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Rain Elevation
- Nope
- Recent Snowfall
- 20
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Visibility was poor, but we could occasionally see snow blowing off alpine ridges. Where we traveled, winds were generally light, but evidence of drifting overnight.
Snowpack
Settled storm totals increased from 1" at Pittsburg to about 4" or 5" at 11,000' to about 8" or 10" at 11,600'. The snow was denser than yesterday and showed evidence of light to moderate drifting overnight. Drifts were up to a foot deep where we traveled, and appeared to be bonding more favorably to the sun crusts on southerlies (test slopes produced minor cracking 2' to 4'). I would expect larger, potentially more sensitive drifts on these aspects where more productive drifting was occurring.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 3
- Aspect
- NE
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 10600 ft
Skier triggered a handful of small soft slabs in steep crossloaded terrain features on E and NE aspects, and observed a similar natural that probably ran last night. Visibility of surrounding terrain was limited by cloud cover.