Quick report
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We avoided steep sun-baked slopes with saturated snow to avoid the wet snow problem. The snow in shallower areas is becoming less supportable due to previous faceting and warming. </p>
Travel was difficult on shady, slick frozen snow surfaces. We also experienced major glopping due to many transitions bw dry and wet snow.
Snowpack
Turning conditions are highly variable, with MF and wind crusts, along with damp snow, making up the majority of the surface snow. We were on the hunt for cold, dry, weak snow, and found it only in the completely shaded gully bottom. On sunny, sheltered slopes, dry NSFs were capped with 3-8 cm of damp/moist snow. On sun-baked slopes, we could punch our pole baskets at least a foot down through damp and weak snow. (No corn). Mid-elevation, sunny slopes are losing snow with the unseasonably warm temps. We will have very complex avalanche conditions when the snow comes.