Quick report
- Aspect
- Southeast
- Red Flags
- Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2987 m
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Got a small muffled collapases on every small shady slope (aka - more northerly facing) that I walked on.</p>
I wanted to look at the snowpack on upper elevation southerly facing slopes (above 9500 ft) and look for faceted snow. What was more interesting was some very small facets under a crust. The crust formed from very warm temperatures and some rain/rime on Dec 20 followed by cold clear skies the night of Dec 21. The crystals were mostly decomposing stellars but there were obvious facets forming. Additionally these crystals would easily spread apart on a crystal card.
Photo below of the snowpit and the ECTP 11.
I'm not sure if this layer will create problems in the future or not. Cold weather will not help. Facets near the ground would not break in stabilty tests and I didn't get any collapses on southerly aspects. We need more data before we write off lurking facets on southerly aspects.