Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2835 m
6" of new, low density snow, at 10:00 when I rolled in to the Guardsmans lot. PI ranged from S1-S2 this morning and there were a couple more inches on my car when I returned a few hours later. Above 9000' there was 10"-12" of new snow, with a light southwest wind. No wind loading observed in the areas I traveled.
Our early season snowpack is making travel challenging right now, as new snow is either falling on bare ground (rocks, bushes, stumps, etc) or weak snow. Good skiing can be found on northerlies, although these are the same aspects of concern as weak layers become overloaded by new snow. I was able to catch some great low angle pow turns above 9000' but coverage rapidly decreases at lower elevations.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>8-12" of low density snow in areas traveled today. Lots of cracking within the the storm snow observed on all aspects. </p> <p>On northerlies this snow is falling on very weak snow. In a NW pit at 9300' I found the snow falling on a few CM layer of facets and surface hoar, sitting above a melt-freeze crust (see photo below). While the no propagation was observed in ECTs, CTs showed Q1 shears on this layer. I'd expect this layer to come out to play as a more cohesive slab develops overtop, and in wind loaded areas. </p>