Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Still normal caution, lots of faceted sugary snow in the lower terrain and isolated wind issues higher up. </p>
1. The riding is still bushy and punchy on this south facing slope. 2. But on a more northerly protected slope the coverage is a little better and less hazards. 3. The Whitney area is just a good storm away from getting out and riding.
Looking up at some of the high start zones, it is still busy and thin, so the hazard when it starts snowing might be futher down the slope where the pack is a little deeper and might hold more weight before failing.
Most of my stability tests were not showing much in the way of concern, however I did get one ECT to fail with 11 taps with good energy, failing on weak snow near the ground. Maybe a sign of things to come where enough of a slab has started to develop?
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The rideable terrain is still limited with nobody really getting onto steeper slopes. </p> <p>The winds seemed to be fairly behaved with the recent storm, I did not observe any real wind issues, but did not spend time in the higher terrain.</p>
A nice 6" of new snow and another 1" throughout the day. Mostly low density new snow and manageable winds from what I observed. Still not a great base out there for riding and turning and I was punchng into the bushes and weak sugary snow. Some places are filling in slowly, but still quite thin in places.