Quick report
- Aspect
- Northeast
- Red Flags
- Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2926 m
- Slope Angle
- 23°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The observed avalanhces (see avalanche submissions) indicated to us that in places with shallow snow, it is still possible to trigger an avalanche that will break into old snow. Both of the avalanches ran on facets near the ground where the snow was shallow.</p>
While our ECT did not produce any results. The facets on the ground and overall poor snowpack structure is still a concern and kept our travels off of and out from under steep slopes with shallow snow. You can see the quite large facets from the bottom of our snowpit in the photo below. The facets appeared to be started to either round or at least bond together.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>While the avalanches we observed failed on a PWL, our main concern for today was the warmth and the wet snow.</p> <p>As noted above, we observed two avalanches that ran on the old snow facets. This is an indication that in places with a deep snowpack, the likelihood of triggering an avalanche has decreased, but in places with a shallow snowpack, there is still a chance of triggering a large avalanche that runs to the ground.</p>
The heat of the day had the snow surface saturated. From our snowpit, the top ~2" of snow was saturated. Even in the shaded trees the snow was damp.