Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The November 28th faceted interface is still the player of concern, though this past week some were able to find soft storm slabs.</p> <p>The winds have affected ridgeline snow and today showed hard, supportable wind crust along ridgetops. The test will be Sunday-Tuesday to see if another 1"+ of water will overload the interface in areas that have not yet slid. </p> <p> </p> <p>Walking the Lambs ridge today I was able to find isolated wind-loaded areas that had slid on this interface sometime in the last week, likely due to natural cornice fall.</p> <p> </p> <p>Pic 1- 9350' N-facing area that had already refilled decently but had created a small D2 slide with some blocks 4' tall and the crown showing the 11/28 failure plane.</p> <p> </p> <p>Pic 2- Similar aspect and elevation avalanche that was limited in elevation due to terrain benching out but was ~100' wide.</p> <p> </p> <p>Pic 3- Digging in a similar area just down from ridgeline show a snowpack height of 145cm with the 11/28 interface 60cm down from the surface. Testing produced an ECTP24.</p> <p> </p> <p>My thoughts are nervous ones, now that this slab is much less sensitive and well-connected. As people venture further onto slopes and this weekend's storm adds more SWE to the slab, there is a distinct potential for people to trigger slabs from lower on the slope with dire consequences. The 2016 Birthday Chutes slide comes to mind after this season's strong Southerly winds.</p>