Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We saw some cracks and visually checked the snow pack structure (poor) by digging a test pit on a Northeast facing aspect at 8600ft near the summit of Monte Cristo. </p>
The snow pack has seen a big change in the last week. Mother nature has finally delivered the gift we have all been waiting for, but that gift comes with high risk, and consequences, if it's not respected. Be sure to stay up to speed on the snowpack conditions by diligently reading the UAC forecasts.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The January drought layer consisting of mostly loose faceted snow is still in play. NOW, there's about 35" of mostly bonded snow resting on this bad layer. We ran an extended column test and got collapse and propagation at 22 taps on the shovel, or, ECTP22. See pic...</p> <p>Same test pit... You can see the new layer of snow (2 feet) resting on about 10" of dense snow from February 12th. Both of these layers are resting on the January facets a seen in the hand hardness photo. </p>
We found 20 to 24' of new snow on top of last weeks 12" of dense snow. All of which is resting on top of the January (drought) facets which equals a thick slap over a persistent weak layer of snow. Avi conditions are still elevated so be careful.