Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2835 m
The tide is low, but it's holding on. Today felt like a cloudy spring day aside from the sun's low angle on the horizon. The surface snow was very damp and it turned into a zipper crust so skiing was quite poor later this afternoon. A layer of graupel exists in sheltered spots about 5" from the top of the snowpack. Low coverage and zipper crusts abound.
Photo 1: Roller ball releases below S facing cliffs near Microwave Photo 2: Damp snow in top few centimeters of the snowpack Photo 3: Trash can-sized roller ball Photo 4: Hand hardness
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The snowpack was damp throughout, and I could make snowballs from each layer except the faceted bottom 10cm. HS was a dismal 55cm. Both CT and ECT tests produced results at the bottom of the graupel layer and I got an ECTP14 within the faceted bottom layer of the snowpack. Hopefully the dampness of the snow helps this layer heal up. For now, we have a slab over 10cm of well faceted snow on northerlies.</p> <p>The forecast called it - it wasn't too early to watch for wet loose avalanches on solar aspects. We saw many wet point releases and roller balls this afternoon. Look at photo #3 of the trash can-sized roller ball that trenched about 1' deep.</p>