Quick report
Today felt like a storm day in the mountains. It was cold and blustery, visibility was limited, and the new snow was being transported by the wind.
We experienced localized cracking around our skis and we were able to move the surface snow when we ski cut small test slopes. We chose to avoid steep and unsupported slopes over 35 degrees.
The storm snow is starting to form a cohesive slab and it is lying on a variety of crusts and weak snow in the upper snowpack. These buried layers are showing signs of reactivity and the load on them should increase substantially with the incoming storm.
Weather
- Air Temp
- 25
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Rain Elevation
- 2500
- Recent Snowfall
- 35 since 1/2, 12 since 1/4
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
Cool temps and moderate winds with light snow and limited visibility. Snow was actively being transported by the wind.
Snowpack
We found approximately 15" of snow from the past week sitting on the stout and slick 12/30 crust. We saw evidence of minor wind loading of the recent storm snow and wind speeds increased throughout the afternoon. The 1/4 interface lies about 4" below the surface and the fresh snow from overnight and today was poorly bonded to this interface and relatively reactive. That said, our primary avalanche concerns were the deeper 12/30 and solstice crust interfaces.
Weak snow lies above the 12/30 crust as well as above, within, and below the solstice crust. The 15" of recent snow is already exhibiting slab-like qualities. These previously buried layers, as well as any potential instabilities within the incoming storm snow, are our layers of concern going into the weekend.
We dug a snowpit on a NNE aspect at 5300' with an HS of 148 cm. We tested the layers of concern in the upper snowpack with small and large column tests, a modified rutschblock test, and ski cuts on steep test slopes. While a large column test broke but failed to propagate across the 12/30 interface (ECTN 21), the modified rutschblock as well ski cuts showed the potential for avalanches to propagate on this layer. Though most activity occurred at the slick 12/30 interface, we were able to impact the solstice crust as well and it is still in the back of our mind as the new snow continues to stack up.