Quick report
- Red Flags
- Collapsing, Rapid Warming
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The extremely warm temperatures caused a number of recent, wet avalanches, both point releases and some wet slabs about a foot or less deep. The slab was the new snow and it was sliding on the dirty layer of old snow. I was thinking about taking a quick run to Devil's Castle but as I crossed some small test slopes the same aspect and steepness, the new snow collapsed in large, booming collapes and onto a wet layer at the new-old snow interface. I quickly decided to back off going up Devil's Castle and took the cat track to Sugarloaf instead. And a good thing because skiing on the untracked snow was nearly impossible in the extremely slabby consditions. The cat tracks were the only option to get up or down the mountain. Definitely not worth the effort in these very warm temperatures. </p>
Various photos of recent wet slabs and sluffs at Alta.
Snowpack
With such warm temperatures, the new snow from the past couple storms is very wet and is collapsing in wet slabs. Skiing is very poor in very slabby snow. Sticking to the cat tracks is much better than untracked snow.