Quick report
After a prolonged period of barely-incremental snowfall accumulations and a semi-stasis for the snowpack, the strong winds and incoming snow load bring substantial change.
Small (sz.1) Dry Loose avalanches were easily triggered in steep northerly terrain. Running fast, but with limited snow available for entrainment.Weather
- Air Temp
- 15
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Recent Snowfall
- 0
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Feb.22: mild with filtered sunshine and some greenhouse effect under broken cloud cover. Solar snow surfaces E thru W developed melt-freeze crusts. Feb.23: cold and clear with increasing light to moderate NW winds. Widespread surface hoar observed, which baked-off on true solars and became flattened on windward aspects. Feb.24: moderate ESE winds, low-level overcast and light snow (s-1). Surface hoar destroyed in specific locations.
Snowpack
Pertinent snow surface observations:
NW thru NE: preserved near-surface facets. Very weak and prone to sluffing. Specific slopes may have experienced wind-pressing and scouring over recent days, in some cases exposing the very slick 1/31 crust. Surface Hoar from Feb.23 observed, but mainly deposited on very weak (F hard) snow surfaces - may have survived intact in certain sheltered N-NE terrain.
E-SE and SW-W (indirect solar): weak melt-freeze crusts. Unsupportable to skis and probably <1-2cm thick. Surface Hoar from Feb.23 observed up to sz.5mm and standing tall. May have remained intact in areas sheltered from NW and ESE winds. Suspect sheltered E aspects near treeline may be most problematic.
SE thru SW (>30° slope angle): more-robust melt-freeze development. Variably supportable to skis and probably up to 5cm thick in steeper terrain. Surface Hoar from Feb.23 observed in AM hours, destroyed or flattened by strong sun by the PM hours.