Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2957 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Red flags present but no so much in your face. Two PWLs present in pit profile but we did not observe any avalanches and experienced only one small collapse. Recent snows may have added about 18" or more in snow depth, so checked heavy snowfall. We were mostly in the trees today so wind slabs were limited to open areas right around ridgelines.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Although not very evident (e.g. limited collapsing) two faceted layers plus new snow were enough to warrant caution. Further snow loading this week could potentially produce more avalanches in the short term. In the longer term, we will start trending towards more stability as we get to March and stack up snow above these layers and experience warmer temperatures..</p> <p>Although most of what we skied was unaffected by wind, some areas near ridges did have more dense will affected snow. The winds started to pick up at about 3pm and will continue with the approaching storm.</p>
In wind exposed areas, snow was quite dense from the windy but didn't feel particularly slabby. This was the case, even in some open meadows and during the first few turns off ridgelines. Not too far below ridgelines and out of the wind, snow quality improved considerably. Relatively few areas stipped bare of snow from the wind, which was a bit of a surprise.