Quick report
- Aspect
- West
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3505 m
- Slope Angle
- 27°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The snow was really supportable, but many pole pokes and our pit hint a broader extent of the rotten October snow than I was hoping for...</p>
Wind was whipping from top to bottom except in the deep dark hollows
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The wind is crazy, and I'm sure there will be a least a couple wind slides that pull out. The question is if those will step down to the October facets. With more snow coming as well, I'm guessing we will have some kind of cycle over the next 48 hrs.</p> <p>The more I look, the more facets I've found. Today I found 32 cm of nasty basal facets under an open canopy on a 290 deg aspect at 11,500' - arg. I would not be surprised if this layer became active over the next few days.</p>
The snow was really fun in the wind sheltered areas of the trees. I'd agree with Dave's styrofoam descriptor with a really supportable base - really fun poppy turning. The wind was ripping anything exposed (including us) to shreds and there was a lot of snow being moved around. I really wanted to peek at something westerly with an open canopy to see if the October facets persisted. Unfortunately, the basal facets on lower Prelude were pretty scary. The upper slab is not that reactive at present in our 2 ECT tests, but a CT test failed easily with 5 light taps. This puts us in the scary gray zone we are so used to in the La Sals. All non-southern slopes above 10500 are suspect until proven otherwise.