Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Lots of moderately strong southwest winds today, blowing and drifting snow onto the north through east aspects. Cracking of the wind blown snow was easy to detect while riding. Good visibility to observe the natural avalanches that happened during the weekend.</p>
1. The winds today were quite gusty at times and much of the open riding terrain was wind damaged. 2. It was easy to observe how the wind was creating slab like snow conditions while out riding a sled.
The upper Whitney Basin went through a good natural avalanche cycle from the big weekend storm. Many of these slides were on north and northeast facing slopes where the snowpack was thin and weak prior to the storm.
Some cornices along the ridgelines have grown large and broke off naturally, triggering some isolated slab avalanches high on the slope.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Plenty of loose snow to blow and drift into fresh wind slabs along the higher ridge lines.</p> <p>The snow pack is slowly adjusting to the big load of fresh snow and wind this past weekend. There were many natural avalanches that occurred during the height of the storm. The steep thin rocky terrain was where many of these natural avalanches took place and it's also where some of the weakest snow was prior to the storm. </p>
The riding and turning conditions continue to improve with the recent storm this past weekend. Today the gusty winds were blowing and drifting snow, but sheltered areas were still holding great settled snow.