Quick report
- Aspect
- West
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2591 m
- Slope Angle
- 30°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Massive wind deposits were settling and collapsing under a skier's weight. We didn't propagate anything as we stayed on slopes <30 degrees all day.</p>
We did two sets of ECT tests. ECTN14 and ECTN 12 occurred in the recently deposited snow and ECTP19 occurred in the January rime layer that capped the Christmas storm facets. We dropped a ski at ~25lbs of pressure and got a large isolated column to propagate and slide entirely out of the block. Once again, the rime-facet interface failed. These failures occurred at around 65-70cm with a snow height between 90 and 100cm.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Lots of snow had moved the night of 31 JAN into 1 FEB. We experienced everything from 100+cm drifts to scoured terrain. Most slabs were depositing on the leeward side of trees and ridges, making the west side of the compass *highly variable*. You could skin or ski a line and go onto the leeward (East) side of the trees and pee your shorts upon seeing the collapses and cracks. F/4F snow is sitting deeply on top of fist hard facets that underlie the January rime. As winds die down, this may settle out, but it didn't seem to be happening as of 2FEB.</p> <p>The wind slabs are highly reactive right now and would almost certainly move up high at steep angles, potentially stepping down into deeper weak layers like the Christmas facets under the early January rime. This is not a secondary problem, but likely comparable and collinear with the wind slabs at some locales.</p>
Wind deposits were abundant on the leeward side of trees. The east ridge was scary loaded and settled but did not propagate remotely. Anything facing Beaver Mountain from mid-slope 210-260 degrees had the potential to be wind-scoured and firm. Conditions were highly variable. This may change with the predicted warming and low winds, but as of Friday 1 FEB, terrain choices were very important to manage this risk.