Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
Boot penetration to the knee just about everywhere today. Delicate touch required on the skin track, as any forgetful weighting of the pole would send it past the weekend crust at 20 cm and would often plunge to 55-60 cm. But no breaking through the dense, wet new snow when skiing down. Fog, rime, some wind, warm temps but no sun. Ground was surprisingly warm and soft, easy for probe to push into soil.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>About 20 cm of fresh, very heavy snow on top of the weekend’s baked surface. Not quite cement but certainly not powder. Best to buckle the boots one notch tighter to fight back against the new snow pushing you around. Then a big helping of graupel came in at about 4:30p, which made the skiing much faster and the turns way more fun. </p> <p>At 8,650’ found three distinct crust layers, mostly separating wet loose grains. No sugar to be found in this west facing pit, but plenty of weak snow. Slick surface below the new snow, failed on that old crust/ new heavy snow at ECT19. </p>