Quick report
- Aspect
- Southeast
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches
- Elevation
- 2926 m
- Slope Angle
- 31°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Natural avalanches from the storm cycle (see separate avalanche obs) on east/northeast facing terrain ca. 9500ft and higher. </p>
Recent obs made it clear the north half of the compass would be an uncomfortable place to be, so we went to south facing terrain on the pole line below Cardiff Pass to see if we could find anything to be concerned about. Snow depth ranged from roughly 60 to 80cm and repeated hand pits from 8500 to 10,000ft showed a right side up snowpack to bare ground, 1F snow on the bottom, transitioning through 4F to F snow on top. See snow pit photo. Two ECTs in this pit with no results. We did find very small pockets (size of your hand) of basal facets or ice lenses on the ground (see photo with shovel in it), but this was quite inconsistent and did not seem to warrant much concern as the vast majority of snow fell on bare ground.
Snowpack
Snow surface was preserved participation particles--some very beautiful small stellars to be seen on the snow surface before the sun really started working them. Snow surface started to transition to damp powder with sun affect by midday, but still great riding conditions.