Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Traveled from Alta to Michigan City and East bowl. Crust was present throughout but riding conditions were startlingly good. Aside from long-running sluffs, no instabilities were observed, just plenty of potential as noted above.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The storm outdid predictions and seems to have produced 8-10" of low density snow in upper LCC. Favored locations were deeper with 14-18" of fresh. I'm lumping new snow and wind drifted snow together as a single hazard for simplicity sake-- the new snow lacks cohesion and didn't form a storm slab in the S-SW-W areas where we traveled. Small, isolated, and sensitive wind drifts were encountered along the E-W ridgeline, and from a distance there was ample evidence of wind loading onto easterly aspects in upper silver fork. Long running sluffs were a possibility in steep terrain. Photo is of a sluff that ran from a little ski cut, 25' wide running probably 300-400 ft on top of the sun crust. An additional loose natural was noted on the E facing steep terrain near Doug's drop in upper silver. Winds were calm at ridgetops this morning, no additional snow transport was ongoing.</p> <p>The crust-grauppel sandwich was present about 20 in down on SW slopes, easily identified in hand pits. There wasn't enough storm snow/overlying slab where I tested for it to be particularly reactive, but between the crusts loose grauppel remains without any bonding. Shovel shears were a bit stubborn, but still planar, failing at this weak layer. I expect increasing hazard on this layer as we get 1-3" of water in the coming days. Additionally, the new low density storm snow fell almost directly atop this crust in some locations, and the new snow could become the weak layer mid-storm if we see dense precip or winds. </p>