Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Poor Snowpack Structure
Started my tour around 10am under broken clouds and cold temps. The snow line is around 8200' on N and E aspects. Clouds rolled in around noon with a ceiling of 8000' and trace snow fell throughout the afternoon.
I dug a pit in a heavily favored area at 10k' and had a snow depth of 120cm. 0-75cm consisted of a weird facet layer that had multiple storms worth of snow that had undergone melt-freeze cycles that consolidated it into a single layer.
75-80cm was loose, fist hard facets.
80-85cm melt-freeze crust.
85-90cm facet layer.
90-95cm melt-freeze crust.
95-100cm facet layer.
100-105cm melt-freeze crust & wind slab.
105-120cm was new, very light snow composed of stellar dendrites.
I get a sense of deja vu looking at the conditions we currently have. With the variability of the forecasted weather and the 'weirdness' of the snowpack I think it is difficult to make any specific assumptions of what will happen.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Almost the entire snowpack is faceted but with no load this layer remains unreactive.</p> <p>In the higher elevations, most unconsolidated snow is being moved around by the winds and top loading many areas. Wind slabs 1-4" deep are widespread but seem to be unreactive. </p>