Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2682 m
- Slope Angle
- 37°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Other than widespread week-old evidence of large natural avalanches and existing poor snow structure, no obvious signs of instability noted. We felt comfortable in steep terrain since most suspect slopes had avalanched during the impressive storm just before Christmas. With the rapid overloading of the weak snow, it appears the area controlled itself and everthing that was going to avalanche came out naturally with nobody around to see.</p>
Feathery surface hoar grew during the day, with sizable 2D crystals forming in our up-track between runs.
-We found nice riding conditions, even in steep terrain that had avalanched during the active Christmas Storm.
-One of the many mostly filled-in crowns from natural activity more than a week ago.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Seems unlikely, but there may be areas where you could trigger a nasty deep slab and I'm still getting positive propagation results in some test pits after I isolate a column. But the slab layer is so thick and hard in most areas that the weak faceted snow underneath appears bridged and our weight apparently has little affect. No new avalanches have been reported in the area since the Christmas Storm.</p> <p>Increasing winds will find plenty of light surface snow to drift into wind slabs...</p>
A great way to close out 2015, we found lovely snow on the south side of Providence Canyon. A couple inches of nice fresh light powder on the surface certainly improved the already fine riding conditions. The fresh snow was a bit faster than earlier in the week.