Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Present on all aspects, can be felt by pole probing essentially everywhere we went, whcih included SW-S-E-NE aspects between 8-9200'. I did trigger two collapses today. One was on the on the always suspect NW facing ridge of peak 9269 in an area experiencing windloading from SW winds ahead of the coming storm. The second, and more surprising was on the SE aspect of the small peak to the S of the Cone that is the top of the little japan area. This collapse occurred while I was breaking track through an area that had many skier tracks and was generally somewhat scoured. Both of these are like warning shots after the last few quiet days that with the winds kicking up and 1.5" SWE coming through Tuesday, there won't be a frankly safe aspect. The south, in particular, is not the safehaven it usually is. </p> <p>Wind transport was ongoing and accumulating drifts on NE slopes. These were stubborn and would crack at ski tips but wouldn't move or propagate. Windslab is less of an issue than the load itself atop our basal weak layer. </p>