Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2865 m
- Slope Angle
- 25°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Considering how much new snow and water weight we got out of this storm I was a little surprised that I wasn't getting as much collapsing and cracking as I was anticipating. That being said, snowpack structure and pit test results affirmed the need to be cautious. </p>
Wind on the high ridges and rime in the trees above 9K.
Another nice base-building storm for the western Uintas. I didn't see any signs of recent avalanches but the visibilty wasn't great today. I have to assume that we went through a natural avalanche cycle with the amount of water weight and wind we got out of this storm.
Snowpit test results showed easy effort to fail, mostly in the new snow but I did get easy to moderate failures in the mid-pack as well. Extended column test propogated with medium hard effort and a clean shear.
Definitely time to dial things back while the snowpack adjusts to it's new load. Steering clear of steeper terrain and staying out of the wind zone is probably wise. It's all about terrain choices right now, travel wisely.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>With the addition of 2 inches of water and more than one persistant weak layer in the mid pack I'd say this is a pretty dangerous setup. A good time to step things back and wait for the snowpack to adjust to it's new load. </p> <p>There are a couple of density changes in the new storm snow; dense, light, dense, light. I think these will settle out pretty quickly. </p>