Quick report
- Cracking
- specific
- Collapsing
- specific
Persistent slab problem quieting down underfoot but still grumbling in a few places...the thunder from down under. The new storm slab over surface hoar was chatty underfoot, hit or miss in location, and didn't want to release on slopes about 35 degrees or less.
The freshly buried surface hoar (12/7 interface, ~35cm deep) produced frequent shooting cracks and soft collapses in wind-protected, shady, open slopes up to about 10,200', then it quieted down until we crossed one open, protected pocket at 11,300'. The layer didn't produce signs of instability on slopes that typically get more wind effect. Hit or miss, to say the least. The slopes that cracked were steep enough to avalanche but the slab seemed to lack enough mass to get moving downslope. We also got a few deeper, louder collapses on November weak layers; typically triggered by 2nd person on the skin track. These were all below 10,000', where the persistent slab is thinner.Weather
- Air Temp
- Coooold in the shade!
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- none
- Recent Snowfall
- 30 to 40
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Snowpack
An ECT around 10,400' on a NE aspect produced hard, propagating results on the 11/30 facet layer (~1mm near surface facets, 90 cm deep). The 11/16 layer (~120 cm deep) is larger and looks weaker, but was more embedded in underbrush here. On steep southerly aspects, the 12/7 crust was supportive to skis and the new snow was bonding relatively well to it. Snow depths in terrain that avalanched during last weekend's cycle were shallow (<50cm) and soft (F hard), and already faceting towards repeat offender status.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Type
- SS
- Count
- 4
- Aspect
- S
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 12200 ft
A handful of small natural wind slabs, mostly on southeasterly facing terrain at higher elevations.