Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We visited the east side of the area in the Mill Creek drainage and found a thinner snow pack, with more developed faceted snow near the ground. Our snow pit stability tests revealed weaker snow with both compression and extended column tests failing with taps from the elbow and the fracture propagating across the column. This kept our travels to lower angle slopes. </p>
We came across this fairly recent slide we think may have been sled triggered on a steep northeast aspect, where strong southwest winds overloaded weak snow near the ground. Not a huge slide, but these hard slab avalanches can fracture very deep and pile up bone crushing blocks of snow.
A view of the slide from a distance showing terrain where winds can quickly transport snow onto the leeward side.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>These thinner snow pack areas have a red flag snow pack structure, with stronger snow on top of weaker snow near the ground. We were finding a one finger hard slab just above large grained faceted snow. One fairly recent human triggered slide helped to confirm our observations. </p> <p>We observed very little snow transport, but there could be a few lingering wind slabs in the more exposed terrain that a person could stumble into. </p>
Excellent turning and riding conditions can still be found throughout the range. The south aspects have developed a thin heat crust at lower elevations, but the higher terrain is still cold settled powder and very supportable snow.