Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>> 4 inches of water?! with some of those north-facing shots going to the ground even before that? a little spooky. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>It's my understanding that generally wet slabs take a steeper slope angle to get going, but with the amount of snow that we got this past week and the weird mid-storm inconsistencies it seems like there's opportunity for weird wet slides to happen. </p>
Thursday was good powder/chowder, but after we left late morning it must have greenhoused a bit, because Friday it seemed like all aspects had a punchy crust on the snow surface. It seemed like it got a little "locked up" due to colder temps (we didn't see any of the slide activity of the last couple of days, despite some good ski cuts on comparable slopes). But the crust was thin enough that any further warming/sun would soften it pretty instantly and perhaps activate the lower layers that clearly got insulated a bit and are warmer?
I think it'll still be complex and tricky the next couple of days if the sun comes out. But if only the ambient temp goes up, will that generate some action? Hard sayin'......