Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3018 m
Based on what we saw today with the warm temperatures below 9,000' I will be looking for areas below that elevation that have warmed up enough to have destroyed any surface weakness. I'm not sure if it was enough of an extended warmup to melt out mid pack and basal facets on north facing slopes below this elevation, but will keep an eye out. I also wouldn't rule out weird surface hoar activity above 9,000' as a few quick hand pits showed a near surface shear and in many places we could see faceted crystals near the surface. We also saw a dirt layer that came in with yesterday's storm and may be noteworthy as the season progresses.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We saw isolated wind drifted snow avalanches on north facing slopes above 9,800' in elevation. These wind drifted zones were isolated to ridgelines and were breaking out with skis on steep (greater than 35° slopes) 8"-12" deep, 15' wide and running 10'-20' before stopping in terrain features. On broader more planar slopes out of the wind zone this was not a problem. The failure plane for these wind slabs was on the new/old interface and we observed no slides breaking down to the older weaker faceted snow near the ground. </p> <p> </p>
Snow from 6,200' to 9,000' was mushy and full on spring conditions with glopped skins, melting water out of the trees and a damp snow surface. Above 9,000' we got into more winter terrain with colder drier snow and more wind. There was some light riming on the snow surface in the wind zone. Settled depth of 1"-3" damp snow at lower elevations and like 4"-7" from yesterday's storm at higher elevations. Some wind loaded areas were up to 18" deep and in most locations above 9,000' we could still feel the faceted snow near the ground on west-north-east aspects.