Quick report
Winds and snow totals underperformed this morning, making for an enjoyable tour with most signs indicating stable conditions. While seemingly stubborn or unreactive, I did find one place with poor structure and a large slab. With such a chaotic series of storms starting this season, I plan to keep my travel plans cautious and my terrain selection below 30 degrees until we get more observations about the snowpack (and more snow to cover the rocks).
I saw wind transport and wind-textured snow throughout my tour. However, I did not find any defined wind-slabs or cornices where I traveled.Weather
- Air Temp
- 22-24
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- light
- Recent Snowfall
- 5
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Both wind and snow totals were less than forecasted for this morning. There was about 3 inches of new snow by the time I arrived to the resort at 8:30 am; and about 1 inch fell between then and 1pm. Winds were light, gusting moderate, generally from the W-SW. Precip and winds seemed to be increasing as I was leaving, between 1-2pm.
Snowpack
Where I travelled, I generally found between 60cm-100cm (with one outlier with 180cm) of consolidated snow with an enjoyably soft upper snowpack. I witnessed minimal cracking and, even on steep test slopes, I did not see any slab formation. I dug two pits and got generally unremarkable test results, with the exception of one shovel shear result: after a full extended column test with no propagating results, I inserted my shovel behind the block and with moderate-hard force, got the block to release 100cm down. I found some rounding facets on that layer above a density change in the snow.