Windslab in the Big Y

Today we snowmobiled into the Big Y. The warming event over the Jan 26th - 28th weekend has formed a hard melt-freeze crust below 1500 m. Riding conditions were firm beneath this elevation. This melt-freeze crust has up to 40cm of snow on top of it depending on its exposure to the wind. In some places, the wind had stripped the new snow back to the melt-freeze crust. We did an extended column test at 1400m and observed propagating results down 15 cm from the snow surface. This new snow is being formed into wind slabs on all aspects in the alpine. Above 1500m the riding quality improved with no melt-freeze crust above this elevation. The snowpack is deep at this elevation with up to 260 cm of snow where we probed. Winds were strong from the north through the day, continuing windslab development in the alpine.