Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2896 m
- Slope Angle
- 24°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Multiple large whoomphs while breaking trail through meadows. Didn't check off rapid warming because although the sun was out strong, temperature profiles and hand pits through the day only showed if affecting the top 2-3cm </p>
Snowpack structure wasn't great, however, it was better than I've been seeing in other locations. Using the "five lemons" the weak layer had 3: top 100cm of snow-pack, persistent grain type, and grain size difference of >1mm. The snowpack was very energetic with propagation and energy able to cross long distances easily. It wasn't taking much to get a failure and the weak layer was carrying energy well.
We took a break mid morning and after seeing how well the weak layer was failure propagation, decided to see how wide of an ect it would fail across on a 20 degree (roughly) slope. Whether or not this is useful info could be debated but sometimes you have to have fun with it. First one was 200cm wide (the width of a bca ruler). Failed on tap 5 with a q1 quality shear.
Second ect was 330cm wide. Same thing, failed on tap 4 clean across the column
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Don't know what else needs to be said about this problem right now. Given a load/trigger, this layer has shown itself to be potent</p> <p>Soft slabs from last weeks storm seem to be less of an issue these days</p>
Word of the day for was Touchy. Surface conditions were beginning to facet, giving excellent riding conditions. Between trailhead and 8500' there was beautiful surface hoar. Saw recent avalanching on all aspects above 10,000' leading us to play around in more mellow conditions. Collapsing and whoomphing on slopes, below 10 degrees. Stomped around on a decent size west facing test slope at 9600' or so and had an extraordinary collapse and shooting cracks out to 30' away both up-slope and down. Definitely wouldn't want to be on that if it were a steeper slope. Dug a pit in the same area. Results below.