Quick report
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Triggered several localized collapses with cracking in smallish pockets a couple meters in diameter around me. Also one much larger resounding whumpf, which seemed to involve the entire low angled southwest facing meadow I was crossing. The entire snowpack in this area is shallow (only around 3 feet deep) and there is widespread weak faceted snow in the basal (January) layers. I found this poor snowpack structure setup at mid elevations on most aspects, but it's worse in shady terrain...</p>
Even during the height of yesterday's storm, the danger in this area never really climbed above Moderate (level 2). The several inches of light snow hardly weighed anything, and the winds certainly didn't reach the intensity that I had expected. Non-the-less, the widespread poor snow structure and continued observed whumpfing indicate potential for dangerous avalanches still exists in shallow areas, which are unfortunately fairly widespread this season in the Central Bear River Range.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I did not see any evidence of natural avalanches from the weekend storm. Not enough of a new load to activate the buried facets by a long shot.... Drifted terrain could be a different story though.... Luckily, this appears to be more of a problem at upper elevations where the snowpack is thicker and stronger. A good load from a moist spring storm or significant warming in the next few weeks could be enough to push the very poorly structured snowpack over the edge. We're not done with this problem yet, at least in the Beaver Creek Area. Stay tuned.</p>
Nice shallow powder conditions, but I certainly could feel the underlying snow especially on the previously sun-crusted west and southwest facing slopes. Otto the dog had trouble following my up track and exit traverse. He was floundering, almost swimming, in bottomless sugary facets especially in shady areas where I would also drop through a soft developing slab into well developed and very soft facets (depth hoar?) even on my long fat boards...