Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>the winds during our last round of storms created some very stubborn wind slabs that are hanging on longer than I expected them to. We had one pocket of wind slab turn us around on our way into red snow.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>most of the snow surface that we encountered today had been effected by the wind in some fashion. Although these slabs should be stabilizing it is important to note that we encountered wind slabs in areas that are usually sheltered from the wind. </p> <p>We ski in a place with a continental snow pack. Steep featured terrain should be approached with caution and careful assessment before hopping onto more "radical" terrain.</p>
We found the full gamut of snow conditions on our tour into gold basin today. The south faces that we encountered had a stout melt freeze crust that developed during this past weeks high pressure. The north faces were a mix of avy debris, wind crust and wind slab, with a few pockets of wind affected soft snow. We found a few soft redemption turns in the sheltered trees on our way out. The snow surface is pretty worked over and we could use a refresh.