Snowpack

Observation: Alta Periphery

Aaron RiceSalt Lake
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Quick report

Red Flags
Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comment
<p>Wind loading was certainly still occurring, though slab formation was not as pronounced as yesterday. </p>

Snowpack

via breaking trail, pole probing and a couple hand-pits, it was very obvious that there were several layers of inverted snow. However, the snow was significantly more stable today than yesterday. I was unable to get much cracking to occur, as opposed to yesterday, where on every step there would be shooting cracks. On a morning tour up cardiff found the same characteristics as in the afternoon on point supreme.

That being said, I kept my slope angle down today, and I would guess that you could get wind/new snow slabs to pull out in more exposed and steeper terrain. And a slide today could be 1-2ft deep (even deeper in heavily wind loaded terrain), making for an unmanageable avalanche, as opposed to yesterdays, numerous touchy, but mostly manageable slides.