Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Today I took a long walk and saw many signs of wind slabs increasing in severity, as well as stubbornness, with elevation. The first signs of wind slabs were 1-2 inch surface layers on NE rolling aspects on the bench below Chute The Moon, leading to Buck's East Ridge. These were quick to crack, and one 30 foot wide section broke off (point release, soft) and ran some 100 feet, but was light and felt harmless in non-consequential terrain. Later in the day I made my way to the North Face of Buck Mountain and encountered much thicker wind slab formation in the NW Couloir of the West Peak (looker's right of Newc). What began as 2-3 inch, manageable, intermittent slabs on the apron became a 6-8 inch monster in the couloir itself. The slab seemed widespread, just about wall-to-wall. No cracking was present, suggesting it could be dormant, but it was enough to make me turn around in no-fall terrain, plus, the skiing would have been terrible! The surface slab sat on about 18-24 inches of low density snow which then sat on the old persistent interface. Hand pits suggested resistance to failure on the persistent layer, without clean shearing, making the wind slab my primary concern. I then proceeded up the Wister/Veiled saddle from the south, where new wind slabs were beginning to form on south aspects with the increasing incoming storm (3:00PM-ish). The North aspect of Veiled was scoured badly, suggesting a shift in winds from the N/NW, though these could have been localized. In the N. Fork of Avalanche, the wind was whipping and torturing just about every aspect! The ski out the N. Fork was zipper crust at it's finest. Hope this helps! Spring's not quite here... yet. See below
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
Snowpack
See below