Quick report
Today I observed dry loose snow throughout my tour, poorly bonded to the recent MFcr. It was easy to trigger small, dry loose avalanches on steep terrain features at and near ridgelines. I also observed moderate northwest winds in the afternoon. If the wind continues to blow, I would expect windslab formation on leeward terrain at and above treeline. I also observed poor snowpack structure on a northwest facing slope where the snowpack is shallow. I was able to easily trigger small, loose dry avalanches on steep terrain features located close to the ridgeline at about 8500’ .
Weather
- Air Temp
- 23
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- 10
- Snow Avail For Transport
- moderate amounts
It was cloudy and foggy throughout my tour. In the morning, there was no wind to speak of. It was snowing intermittently less than a centimeter an hour. As the day progressed, west northwest winds started ramping up into the moderate range (15-25mph). By 4:00 this afternoon I could easily observe copious amounts of snow being transported by the wind. Snowfall rates ramped up as well. By 4:00, snow was falling at a rate of about 2 centimeters per hour. The temperature at noon was 26 degrees. By 4:00, the temperature had fallen to 23 degrees.
Snowpack
Approximately 4” of new, light density snow, sitting atop a supportable melt freeze crust. The new snow fell yesterday and last night in fairly windless conditions. See photos and captions for details about snowpack structure that I observed. In general, I observed better structure and snowpack strength in pit #1 where the height of snow was 280 cm. Snowpit #2, located above Hoffer Lake, has a thinner snowpack (HS 135). The bottom third of the snowpack there consists of 2mm facets. Although the facets are gaining strength and consolidating, they are still worrisome to me.
Avalanche
Loose dry avalanches easily triggered on steep terrain features near ridgelines.