Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3414 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Observed a couple of shooting cracks on a westerly terrain feature in the choke of the funnel. Many aspects now harbor a buried weak layer of facets.</p>
ECTP16 (X2) on NE aspect near treeline, failing below a thin melt-freeze crust with facets below the crust.
Shooting cracks in the choke of the Funnel- more of a west/northwest aspect on skiers left.
1) Same area of concern, but looking upslope with wind affect on the snow surface
2)overview of the terrain.
I was surprised at the somewhat poor structure on southerlies and the shooting cracks on west/northwest. Good reminder of the complexity of this terrain and seems to warrant further sampling to see where the weak layers might still be reactive.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Early season snow has become weak and faceted, including snow that fell the week before the Dec 1 storm. </p> <p>While this is to be expected on northerlies, I was surprised to find facets below a 2-3 cm melt freeze crust on southerly aspect near and above treeline. </p> <p>It seems like the overlying slab has stiffened a bit in the last week as evidenced by column tests and shooting cracks. </p> <p>Choose to travel on southerly slopes and found decent skiing with last weeks settled storm snow on top of melt-freeze crust. When I lost the crust and changed aspects in a gully feature, I observed shooting cracks up to 40' that were likely breaking at the interface with last weeks storm. </p>
Hs near treeline was ~50cm on a NE sheltered aspect. Ridgelines were more wind influenced with clear evidence of previous transport, mostly from W and SW winds.