Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The snow pack on this end of the range is thinner and has more developed facets near the ground, than I was finding in the Whitney area last week. I did not have any alarming stability tests in the snow pit I dug, even though weak faceted snow still makes up much of the lower snow pack. </p>
The upper elevation exposed terrain has really been worked over by last week's strong winds.
These older slides from last week's strong winds on east and northeast facing slopes were likey triggered from cornice fall. The snow pack is still thin and weak in many of these higher elevation rocky areas. Not a great photo, but tried to show the debris piles from these more recent slides.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The snow pack seemed rather relaxed today with no old wind slab issues. With the approaching storm a fresh round of wind drifts are likely.</p> <p>With each new snow and strong wind event the snow pack in the thin rocky areas continues to have avalanches. I noticed some older slides at the upper end of the Mill Creek drainage. These were on east and northeast facing slopes and looked to have been triggered by cornice fall. </p>
I was still able to find nice settled powder on the higher north facing slopes with damp snow lower down. The lower elevations were starting to get a little punchy and unsupportable early afternoon. The conditions for traveling around are quite good at the mid and higher elevations with riders getting onto many steep slopes.