Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We only had one significant collapse today at timberline on a wind drift. The new snow is already forming a slab due to the density and would break off in cohesive chunks when breaking trail. It was very hard trail breaking today.</p>
The wind is the story right now with large wind drifts forming in many areas.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The wind is wreaking havoc up there. I would not be surprised if natural wind slab avalanches also reactivate our persistent weak layers lingering deep in the snowpack and cause avalanches that step down to those layers.</p> <p>We have received >33" of new snow over the last 3 days. This fresh snow has also already set up as a slab in the areas we were.</p>
Our pole poking revealed about 24-26" of fresh at ~10,000 feet today and could also feel the prior ~6" from Thursday-Friday. IT WAS DEEP. As the area we skied was only ~25 degrees, the first run was actually a little slow due to the depth of the snow and the medium density. We stayed in wind sheltered glades for skiing, but when we popped up to the ridgeline to look around crazy snow drifts were forming and a ton of snow was being transported.