Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Just about most red flags checked today other than heavy snowfall (unfortunately). I would check rocks too if that was an option.</p>
Dirt at 10,000 feet.
Noticed this avalanche in Days Fork too. I didn't see it in the list but probably happened just after the Christmas storms.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Facets capped by a new snow slab has produced widespread avalanche activity over the last few days. This is present in many locations from lower elevations along the PC ridgeline to upper elevations in the Cottonwoods. It was no different in areas traveled today.</p> <p>West wind today was transporting snow and growing cornices and making them surprisingly sensitive. Today I got a little too close to one above Honeycomb, which triggered an avalanche. See corresponding avalanche observation for more details.</p>
Snow was generally soft but thin. Looked at the snow on east facing slopes at Twin Lakes Pass and in Silver Fork. In both locations only perhaps a 40-50cm total snow depth, with facets at the bottom, topped by a weak crust and capped by new snow from the Christmas storms. At Twin Lakes Pass, the spot I looked at had a little bit more of a SE orientation (right below the power lines) and the facets seemed a little less loose than on more shady slopes.
I did not note the dual crusts that were present in Days Fork and at Guardsman early in December.
Surface snow was scalloped from the wind on both east and west facing but was still soft.
South facing exit down the Emma's ridge was a mix of warming snow, old tracks and rocks.