Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Went up to look at the skier triggered slide from the 11th. New wind transport occurring during the day. Noted some cracking in hard wind slabs.</p>
On a side note, lack of snow, variable and overall poor riding conditions and the ATV rutted out road made this the worst ski experience I've had this winter. I will note it was pleasantly quiet and I found the avalanche to be pretty interesting.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>A "pockety" wind slab issue sitting on top of a persistent weak layer of facets presents the main concern in the wind zone of Mineral. </p>
Mineral Fork is a disaster with an overall shallow snowpack (typical) and a huge amount of spacial variability due to a couple of different wind events. Depths range from around 8-10" of completely faceted grains to areas containing knife hard wind slabs up to 20" deep. You don't need to travel far for conditions to completely change. This has a good potential to be very tricky once everything is covered with new snow. Many areas will not be very sensitive and this may lend a false sense of security to backcountry travelers.