Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Walking the ridge and skiing various slopes, I found a wide range of new snow depths. On the southern half of the compass near ridgelines, there is only 1-2" of new snow above old wind crusts, likely from the brief bump in winds mid-storm. On the northern half of the compass, winds built shallow drifts and pillows of snow. These were isolated and stubborn, but in the right place may be able to produce a small slide. While not a problem until it snows, I found widespread small surface hoar on all the slopes I traveled on today, strong spring sun was already beginning to break it down, but anything in the shade stayed cool and upright.
I found pockets of wind-drifted snow that cracked under my weight. These dunes (see photo) of fresh snow were isolated; if the terrain was steeper, I might have been able to trigger a small slide.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Mostly clear skies with rolling low clouds obscuring the tops of peaks. Anywhere from 1-5 inches of snow fell in this last storm (southerly slopes likely got scoured mid-storm and only the tail end of snowfall stuck around). Winds were calm to light from the N and NE.
Snowpack
On all slopes I traveled on today, I found small surface hoar growing even along ridgelines. New snow is bonding poorly to the surface below where it fell on stiff old wind crusts. Below the new snow, old wind crusts cap small facets down to January crusts. I didn't dig, but in the hand pits I could pull away these thin crusts fairly easily.
Avalanche
Widespread dry loose avalanches in very steep terrain. Mostly naturals, but I was able to trigger small sluffs on any slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. These sluffs ran further and faster where new snow rests above firm wind crusts. Towards the end of the day, there were a handful of fresh sun-induced sluffs as rocks shed the new snow.