Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Elevation
- 2408 m
- Slope Angle
- 21°
Gratuitous shots:
1) building clouds and stunning views
2) next year's cone crop for this buried pine.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Small loose wet avalanches on low elevation SE through E through NE facing slopes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bigger debris piles from higher elevation southerlies, especially below rock bands. (photo below)</p> <p> </p> <p>One wet loose triggered a small slab (photo below).</p> <p> </p> <p>Tomorrow should be a few degrees warmer, and perhaps even sunnier than today. Expecting a decent refreeze tonight. Still, melt freeze forms below the new snow were wet and will remain insulated; wet activity could gouge down into these unconsolidated grains.</p> <p> A week ago on Cutler Ridge we had several large collapses, and today in similar terrain we had none.</p> <p> </p> <p>Can't say goodbye to persistent weak layers yet, however. Digging a north-facing pit at 7,850', I sheared off a beautiful layer of buried surface hoar. The layer is visible as a "thin grey line" 60cm down, and propagated a fracture with taps from the shoulder. It was hard to trigger under a very stout crust, but its presence and propagation potential kept us off the nicer skiing on the protected northerly slopes. We railroaded instead down a ridge that Drew promised was "good skiing for good skiers", but I'll never know.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Snow surface will only be dry on high northerlies, everything else damp or wet in the heat, and crusted by the time we exited at 6:30.
Low elevation was a trenching mess; wet snow, a small band of dry-becoming-saturated new snow, and then a thick serving of large wet melt forms below.