Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Started our day at 3700 ft around 10:30am where we found 2-3 inches of fresh snow, little to no wind, temperatures just below freezing, and snowing hard. Started on skins around 4600ft and toured up easterly and south easterly aspects. The winds out of the S/SW increased dramatically as we gained elevation and we were observing small shooting cracks from our skis while cutting new trail. At 5100 feet we performed some ski cuts on steep SE test slopes and got no result / release other than a few inches of dry sluff. At this elevation we found roughly 10 inches of snow overtop of a pencil hard sun crust. A hand shear at this elevation and aspect failed on top of the suncrust with moderate force and was resistant planar. As we ascended the wind continued to blow moderate to hard out of the S/SW. We observed blowing snow and drifts building on leeward aspects and snow cracking under our feet as we traveled. At 5800 ft on a SE/E aspect we performed a quick hand pit and found approx.18" of new snow over the sun crust. Snow hardness profile of this hand pit: F hard new snow over 1F consolidated slab over F-hard over P-hard suncrust. Our hand shear in this location failed with easy force and was sudden planar where there was a density change in the snow approximately 3" above the sun crust (below the 1F slab). We ultimately stuck to low angle slopes and gave a wide berth to any avalanche terrain on our ski descent back to the snow machines