Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Cracking, Collapsing, Rapid Warming
Toured up White Pine to see how the summer snowpack is setting up. The best way I can describe today is 'soupy.' Even before the sun came out, the new snow was wet and rapidly consolidating (in the 3hrs I was out, it had consolidated about 3"). There were no signs of instability until I got to a meadow below Rainbow Peak/Dog Dish. While I was out in the middle of the meadow, I got a massive collapse. After that, every couple steps I took I would get a giant collapse. By the end of the day, I probably had about 20 of these large collapses. I dug a quick pit and my best hypothesis (I am not an avalanche expert) is that the weak layer of refrozen grains below the ice layer of the old snow is what is collapsing. I think the likelihood of this layer failing and propagating is low.
Based on what I saw today, the danger seems to be a solid moderate and will stay that way until we get a couple freeze-thaw cycles in.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Wet loose avalanches were active almost exclusively in extreme terrain areas and most were started by snow coming of of rocks. These avalanches were in the D1-2 size range and were predictable and slow-moving. Based on what I saw today, it is unlikely but possible that there are some small wet slabs that you could trigger in these extreme terrain areas. I expect that wet loose avalanches will remain active for the next 2-3 days with the high temps and intense solar radiation that is predicted and that we will see more activity in mellower terrain. </p>