Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>There were a few lingering soft wind slabs just off the ridge lines that would crack about a foot in depth, but they seemed fairly relaxed. The Mill Creek zone has only about two feet of snow on the ground with sugary faceted snow near the ground. </p>
1. For mid December the Mill Creek area does not look too bad for snow coverage. You still have to travel carefully as the rocks and stumps are thinly covered. 2. A quick snow pit shows about two feet of snow with the early season sugary snow near the ground easy to locate. There is a little body or structure to the snow pack, so its not quite riding on the ground which is pretty typical out here.
1. A few soft wind slabs would crack out just off the ridge lines, but did not want to move much. The winds seemed to be mostly along the higher ridge lines and not did not change the snow conditions much. 2. An old avalanche that happened at some point exposing the nasty rocks and trees that would make for an ugly ride if you triggered something here.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The snow pack in this area where I dug around was mostly a 4finger hard slab on top of early season sugary snow near the ground. The snow pit tests did not indicate much energy, with the columns of snow cracking, but the crack would not propagate. </p>
Around 5" new in the Mill Creek Drainage and 3-4" at the trailhead. Did not seem like the winds got out of hand yesterday after the front moved through and the riding and turning conditions were quite decent, but a little shallow in this area.