Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>In this zone, the winds are usually the big red flag as the north side of Elizabeth Ridge is a large wind fetch with very little terrain to slow the wind down. </p>
Took a visit to the Elizabeth Ridge area where winds and blowing, drifting snow is the norm. This northeast facing slope becomes heavily wind loaded and it is not uncommon to see some large cornice triggered slides break to the ground.
Easily triggered shallow wind slabs along the ridge lines today with steady and gusty southwest winds. None of these broke into older snow, but in bigger more open terrain and with a snow structure that is still touchy, large deeper slides would be very possible.
A couple layers in the snow pack that stood out in this area are the old snow surface prior to the bigger storms last week and a buried faceted layer near the bottom of the pack. The upper layer would crack with a clean planer shear, but not a lot of energy and no propagation with either one.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Lots of cracking of fresh wind slabs today, these were quite sensitive to the weight of a person and were breaking up to a foot deep. These could easily be much deeper where the winds are stronger and the terrain more exposed. None of these broke into older snow, but I kept to lower angle slopes. </p> <p>Sensitive wind slabs were the immediate hazard, but any of these could easily step down into the buried faceted layers that are still active as recent avalanches have shown. </p>
Lots of wind affected snow along the very exposed ridge lines and nice settled soft snow in sheltered areas. Maybe 5" new since the snow started late on Saturday.