Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2865 m
- Slope Angle
- 35°
Snowpit on a northwest facing slope at 9,400'. Total height of snow was 49" (126cm) and while the stability was poor we got no results with extended column tests (No propagation). I still don't trust this weak faceted sugary snow and a steeper slope with more wind loading would be suspect. In thinner areas facing all aspects (direction on the compass) we found weak thin faceted snow. There was a report of a large collapse in this area on a southeast aspect at 9,000' on a 24 °slope. Getting signs such as cracking, collapsing, and whumpfing are sure fire signs that the facets are not done yet and any additional snow or wind could bring them back around.
Snowpack
Snow surface was mixed wind crust or faceted loose snow surface with a very slight, not noticeable under skis melt-freeze crust near the surface out of the wind zone.
Photo of snow surface- looking back towards a northeast facing slope.