Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Surprised to have no collapsing on any of the facets, though the parties in front of us may have gotten the collapses. </p> <p>Snow was quite cracky in wind affected areas, up to 2 feet deep. Out of the wind affected terrain, only the top 2 inches of newest snow was cracking. Wind drifting seemed limited to high ridgelines.</p>
Nice to finally see some new snow. While it seemed to be a bit of a wallow going uphill breaking trail, turns were good on low angle slopes.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Surprisingly uneventful - expected the facets that were on the surface before the storm to be more reactive. In spite of the lack of collapsing and avalanches, we stayed on lower angle slopes - snow structure with several buried facet layers made the steep, northerly facing slopes suspect. Moderate with pockets of Considerable was right for where I was.</p>
Whipped cream powder, 10-15 inches new. The snow was only wind affected up high - there seemed to be a buried wind blown layer from early in the storm and then the current snow surface was also getting slightlywind drifted. Wind drifted areas up to 2' deep, but still soft slabs.