Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading
- Elevation
- 3139 m
- Slope Angle
- 39°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>2" of dense, heavy snow at upper altitudes with some wind stripping and loading from the West. I was the first up Wildcat ridge, and stomped every cornus I could to see if anything reacted, but other than breaking off and falling a couple feet, the snow seemed to stay very well put. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>ECTP2-Q3 40cm deep in the ~60cm of new snow. On very steep slopes a big hard hit might be able to break it loose, but the new snow is so dense and it's compression strength is so high that it seems very unlikely to trigger anything, unless you stomp on a hanging shelf that isn't able to exploit the new snow's strength. If you did manage to break the weak layer in the new snow, it could possibly break down to the rotten snow underneath and escalate the severity.</p>
Snowpit @ 10,250 feet, NE facing 39* slope, 7:45am, >270cm snowpack depth, 1.2m pit depth, 53cm of new snow comprised of 1-2mm broken stellar dendrites. ECTP-2 with a very low energy fracture 40cm deep, on top of a heavier layer in the new snow pack. After that failure, gentle prying on the column broke it at 55-60cm below surface, in the middle of the icy old snow surface layer, which was mixed forms 2-4mm 1F density. The bond between the new snow and the old snow was stronger than either one of those layers alone. Snowpack details: Air temp: -.5C Suface (0cm): Light/medium snow, difficult to pack into a snowball. -1.C -10cm: -2.C -20cm: -2.C -30cm: -1.5C -40cm: -1.C ECTP2-Q3 -45cm: F hard at surface to F+ here -45 to -48cm: 4F layer of new snow (must have been warm or wet when it fell) -48 to -53cm: F layer of new snow, well bonded to old snow surface underneath -50cm: -.5C -53 to -64cm: Mixed forms, 2-4mm, 1F, fairly well bonded -60cm: -.5C, after ECT test, gentle prying caused a failure across my block here, down to the bottom of this layer. -64 to -76cm: Rotten layer of mixed forms. 4F -76 to -82cm: P hard melt/freeze layer -82 to -120cm+: 4F
12" of new snow at Collins base 15-18" at 9000' 20-24" at 9300' -.5C air temp @ 6:30am 2' at 9800', -1C air temp @ 7am 2' at 10,250', -.5C air temp @7:45am