Weather
- Air Temp
- 32
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- none
- Rain Elevation
- 8000
- Recent Snowfall
- 3-4"
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
Warm. Mostly cloudy. Calm winds. No blowing snow on ridge lines.
Snowpack
Yesterday's snow came in with little wind. 3-4 inches of loose snow is covering most slopes and hasn't been blown out of the trees yet. We didn't find any wind slabs, but we didn't travel above 10,000'. Alpine terrain appeared to have some recent drifting.
Upper snowpack: Not too concerning here. The mid and upper snowpack is mostly a right side up slab with softer snow above firmer (1finger) snow. There is a softer layer of faceted snow sandwiched about 27in (70cm) down from the surface. This layer did not show any potential for crack propagation in pit tests.
Lower snowpack: basal facets are present where we probed and dug, but they were buried at least 40in (1meter) deep beneath a 1 finger slab. These facets are still showing potential for crack propagation though triggering would be difficult at this depth.
While coverage was good where we traveled, snow depths in this area vary significantly. We observed many scoured and rocky areas where depths are shallower and the chances of impacting the basal facets are higher.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5 R2
- Type
- HS
- Aspect
- NE
- Elevation
- 8800 ft
Visibility was good during the ride. We did not see any recent avalanche activity. This includes steep, wind loaded terrain in the alpine by Bonneville Pass and Brook’s Lake. We observed one recent avalanche on a short but very steep slope in Black Rock Creek during the drive. We didn’t get a great look, but the avalanche was several feet deep and appeared to have failed near the ground.