Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Numerous collapses and cracking of the new snow that is sitting on the old weak surface. I did not observe any natural or human triggered slides and the lack of wind has made it seem a little tricky with the slab on top not too dense at the moment. Although I was able to collapse and crack out a very small test slope with the slab up to 18" deep. </p>
A slight improvement in the conditions getting out of the trailhead with about 4-5".
A good storm with around 8-10" and upwards of 12-14" for the higher elevations of Gold Hill Basin.
Where the wind has drifted the new snow into denser slabs, it was easy to collapse and crack small test slopes.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>A quick hand pit or a shovel of new snow reveals the poor structure under the storm snow. Some of the weakest snow I found was on a northwest aspect at 10, 300' where all three standard snow pit tests showed very unstable snow. The compression and ECT tests both had very low scores and a shovel shear indentified the weak interface. </p>
The storm left between 8-10" with a legit 12-14" of medium density for the higher parts of Gold Hill. Yesterday's late afternoon/evening impulse accumulated an additional 3" which put the snow totals around a foot and really improved the travels conditions.