Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Heavy snowfall and high winds during this storm cycle producing fresh, dense winds slabs especially at higher elevations below the ridge line.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>(See snow characteristics comments)</p> <p>High winds and heavy snowfall during the storm cycle producing dense fresh wind slabs especially at higher elevations below the ridge line.</p>
The new snow since Thursday is dense and fairly well bonded to the old snow surface. Several graupel layers exist within the new snow providing planes of weakness but no fracture propagation.
On a 28 degree NW slope at 8300' during a Propagation Saw Test on a weak layer at 100 cm (old rain/rime crust with facets below) a fracture propagated to the end of the column only after pulling the saw along this weak plane for 90 cm in the uphill direction (PST 90/100 (END) down 100 on ?). Even with this result, suspicion of deep slab instability should be maintained on open steeper slopes at higher elevations especially where thinner rocky areas exist with poor underlying snow structure. Another of those low probability/high consequences mind ticklers.