Quick report
Strong east winds moved snow in the morning, and calmed down mid-day. This resulted in shallow wind slabs in cross loaded gullies, that did not react to numerous slope cuts. Wind scouring was observed in traditional N/NE facing start zones. Surface hoar at the surface was mostly knocked over by wind. The Jan 2nd facets and facets above the mid-December rain crust were easy to find with informal obs, but formal obs did not indicate instability on either of these layers.
Snowpack tests at three locations did not indicate instability today. I targeted the Jan 2nd facets, and the facets just above the mid-December rain crust. Multiple test slopes targeting today's shallow wind slab also did not show signs of instability.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Strong east winds in the morning that calmed in the afternoon. Cool temps due to the wind, along with strong sunshine.
Snowpack
The Jan 2nd facet layer did not have a crust associated with it in this area, and was not as distinct or weak as seen at Forestdale Divide yesterday. I tried to find SH incorporated into the facets and couldn't. Another faceted layer was observed above the mid-December rain crust. Neither of these weak layers produced unstable results at three different test profile locations on N/NE aspects between 8500ft and 9000ft.
Avalanche
We had clear views of several very steep N/NE facing avalanche paths and did not see recent activity.