Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Significant wind slabs on upper ridge lines</p> <p>Very poor snowpack structure in the areas that we did hand pits</p> <p>Lower elevations could experience wet slides due to the daytime warming.</p>
A couple of quick hand pits revealed the very poor snowpack structure on both NW and NNE aspects. There was no early season snow in this area but the December rain reached this elevation and capped the snowpack leading to the faceting of the snow from the Thanksgiving storm. The snowpack was quite shallow at ~24".
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Wind slabs were quite dense on all aspects. We felt that these could step into the weaker snow below if they broke.</p> <p>The multiple crusts on top of the ground facets were an cause of concern had us avoid these aspects.</p>
Wind slabs were prevalent on NW through SE aspects.
By 11AM, the SE aspects at 8,500' were already damp and heavy from daytime warming.