Quick report
- Aspect
- East
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2835 m
- Slope Angle
- 26°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Our extended column pit revealed poor upper snowpack structure in our East facing pit. New storm snow with wind dep easily failed with one Tap on the shovel on a faceted surface down 6-8" from the 19th?(see photos) With that layer removed, it failed again with 4-5 light shovel taps down 10-12" on healing facets. Below this, the snowpack is consolidating, and took much effort to dislodge, but I could get all of the old, weaker layers to bust loose with effort which is worth noting.</p>
1st photo shows 5.5 feet of intact snowpack. 2nd is one-tap failure. 3rd pic is 1st failed bed surface. 4th is 4-5tap failure down 2feet into the snowpack. 4th is messy column showing weak layers/failure planes & healing lower column...
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Very reactive storm snow and wind dep mix on top down 6-10" moving easily on ALL steep slopes. LIght density but could carry you if not paying attention. </p> <p>There appears to be much healing in areas where the snowpack is intact and/or skiid, but the new storm snow and reactive two feet of upper snowpack could ruin your day if you are not paying attention or are in terrain where the consequence of getting caught are greater. Steeper, over 30 degree slopes are not recommended by me. Getting strained pushed into a gully or pitched over some cliffs and buried is not smart when low-angle options exist. Today we skiid accordingly.</p>
6" plus new colder snow on N thru E aspects with wind deposition adding more on top during the tour. East, North and South facing aspects we travelled on and near was slowly getting loaded with new wind-transported snow. The terrain we skiid was low-consequence and low angle on both East and North facing aspects here we found delightful, low density snow. Because of the complicated and reactive upper snowpack that we encountered in an extended column test in Moon Rocks, we skiid conservatively and played by the rules.