Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Poor snowpack structure in the upper 10 to 40 cm layers. The most pronounced weakness was the above described Storm Slab issues related to the new snow resting on lighter density snow from previous storms this past week. This weakness was mostly stubborn and unreactive early in the day, but by later in the day it was beginning to show signs of minimal cracking. On slopes with angles approaching 40 degrees this weakness was more apparent and reactive. Mid pack weak layers yielding easy shears at 30 and 40 cm down on protected shady aspects. </p> <p>Widespread wet loose below 8000 feet, see observation from Y Couloir. </p> <p>S2 snowfall abated for a brief period during late afternoon and began again around 2100.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Storm Slab and Wind Slab problems were growing during the day at mid and upper elevations, and appeared to be escalating by late in the day. Additional new snow and water will only exacerbate this issue for Thursday. See above for weak structure descriptors. </p> <p> </p> <p>Graupel Pooling an additional concern as a weak layer below steep slopes at transitional points. </p> <p> </p> <p>The seasonal spring like warmth may help reduce the reactivity of these buried weak layers (inverted layers), yet the large amounts of water continue to be a red flag for potential avalanching. </p> <p>Already suspect cornices continue to build and present real issues for potential for releasing naturally, and subsequently triggering large dangerous slides in steep terrain below. This issue confined predominantly to NNW, N and NE at upper elevations. </p> <p> </p> <p>Considerable appearred likely at upper elevations for wind slabs and storm slabs. Moderate at mid elevations, and the widespread loose wet cycle at lower elevations indicated Considerable. </p>
Traveled from 9200 to 9700 on SW, SE, N, NE and NW aspects. Shady aspects had thick/dense inverted riding, yet it was decent turning besides being a bit slow. New snow constituted a 4 finger slab resting on DF/decomposing stellars. New snow was not wet/damp at these upper elevations, yet below about 8500 feet the snow surface was damp/wet and the lower you got the worse it got. An extremely wet day out there reflective of NW weather patterns. Aspects on the lower half of the compass indicated the minimal amounts of new snow (2 to 4 inches tops) and this was resting on a variety of m/f crusts with varying thicknesses.