Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Got a shooting crack about 5ft in length off my ski tip in a wind loaded pocket along a ridge at 9,000’. Other than that, cracking in the wind slabs was confined to the snow right around my skis.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- overcast
- Wind Loading
- intense
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Strong to very strong wind above 10,000’ this morning. Blow you over type gusts. Moderate to strong wind below 10,000’. Blowing snow observed in all elevation bands.
Snowpack
Upper snowpack: Stubborn wind slabs 6-12” thick in most terrain today. Not very reactive to ski cuts where we traveled today, but seemed like the kind of slabs that could take you by surprise. Loading was present further downslope than usual and in a variety of terrain features given the wind speeds.
Middle snowpack: Tracking the Christmas Crust and faceted grains around it. The Christmas Crust is buried 2-2.5ft (60-70cm) at 9,000’. We found 1mm faceted grains above the crust in our test pits. Pit results today produced mixed, but mostly propagating results at this interface on a NE facing slope at 8,800. The overlying slab was still quite soft here.
2 pits: ECTP x3, ECTNx1, PST 40/105 END
We have seen very little avalanche activity so far on the Christmas Crust, but it seems the slab hasn’t really set up yet where it exists. For now, the facets above the crust are the primary layer of concern. Impacting the grains below would be difficult. This layer will be worth tracking in the future with additional loading and changes to the snowpack structure. The Christmas Crust and weak grains above have been observed on all aspects up to about 9,500’.
Avalanche
Small, but steep test slopes did not produce any avalanches. We did not observe any other activity, but visibility was limited.