Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Poor snowpack structure is an overstatement as I only found a few minor density changes within the new snow. No obvious buried surface hoar in this area though I did confirm that an avalanche down canyon on a lower elevation WNW facing slope from Thursday did fail on buried SH. There is a tremendous amount of new snow in Providence Canyon and Logan Peak area. Sledders were starting to test obviously loaded slopes with no failures.</p>
Photo 1 - Loose dry in morning (pic) then loose wet avalanche activity on S facing mid/low elevation slopes.
Photo 2 - Thursday's avalanche (at mine dump in Providence Canyon) weak layer - buried SH.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I dug around at mid and higher elevations W and N and found no evidence of buried SH. I did find it though at lower elevations, specifically on W/N facing slopes. </p> <p>Saw a few Size 1 wet loose slides on S facing slopes at mid and lower elevations. The sun angle is increasing enough that even with cold air temps, direct sun is enough to destabilize. </p>
Great turning conditions -settled storm snow with 8-12" of super light density snow on top. Sizable surface hoar already developing.