Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Almost needed to put the handle on my shovel to dig a pit, but with the deepest snow I could find being 65 cm, the handle stayed in the bag. The top 20 cm is all fist/4 finger on top of a stout 15 cm crust. On a NW aspect at 9,400 feet, everything below that crust was loose. On a N aspect at 9,100 feet, the bottom 20 cm was almost solid ice. Haven't seen that here before, not sure what to make of it.</p> <p>We hit known slide paths with no reaction. Nothing wanted to move. </p> <p>First photo shows crust from NW aspect. Second photo shows the middle and lower shelves from the N aspect.</p>
Snowpack
About 1/2 inch of fresh all around. After that, aspect was everything. Breakable crust over about 20 cm total depth on south-facing at 9,200 feet. West facing was light on open slopes, variable in the aspens. North facing was wonderful recrystallized. Fun, easy turns, as long as you didn't mind weed whacking. Skinning was not the chore that is often common in loose sugar. Pole plants never broke through the very stout crust 20 cm down. In untracked steep north, blissful turns. Of course it will be setting up troubles down the road.