Quick report
- Aspect
- West
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3444 m
- Slope Angle
- 27°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Wind loading onto NW-N-E aspects throughout the day. Poor snowpack structure still exists on northerly aspects with weak, faceted snow underneath the Christmas rain crust. The snowpack wasn’t talking much today and I only observed isolated cracking involving wind affected snow. </p>
A snow pit at 11330 on W facing terrain just above treeline with no propagation results in an extended column test. Snow depths ranged from 45-55cm here.
Thin conditions on S/SE aspects along with isolated protected areas on the same aspect with deep drifts up to 2+ feet.
Isolated cracking from the wind affected snow
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>New and wind drifted snow loaded northerly aspects with winds out of the SW today and will continue to do so the upcoming days. Weak snow still exists here and it is difficult to tell how much of a load the rain crust will be able to support </p>
The new snow seems to have settled into 4-6” of floaty, fast and supportable snow for turning near and below treeline. Above treeline and on ridges the snow is affected by weather with a mix of soft snow, hard wind affected snow, and a thin rime/wind crust. The wind was actively moving snow around all day, filling in tracks and transporting onto NW-NE-E aspects. I found soft and fun turns on S/SE, W and NE facing aspects. SE aspects are still thin, and SW/W aspects were soft but more wind affected nearing treeline. Overall, conditions were the best of the season and the Christmas rain crust was still supportable for travel and turning.