Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches
- Elevation
- 3048 m
The combination of wind, warm temperatures and rime created a 1 to 2 inch, firm but breakable snow surface. On northerly-facing slopes, the surface is softer but still dense (4F hardness). On some exposed northerly-facing slope we found facets forming on the surface of the crust. We also observed one area with a near completely faceted snowpack. This was on a sheltered north-facing slope at about 10200' with a total snow depth of 50cm.
We dug on a few north and northeast-facing slopes and found a crust facet crust combination about 35cm below the surface. The layer of facets is very thin and didn't fail in any stability tests and had a broken shear plane. Without any avalanche activity to attribute to this layer it's unlikely to be a problem but something to be aware of moving forward.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>We observed many small D1 wet-loose avalanches on east and southeast-facing slopes. These avalanches ran on Friday as the new snow warmed. The snow surface on the south and east aspects did warm through the day and the top 3 to 4inches became damp but did not produce any additional wet loose activity on Saturday.</p> <p>We did not see signs of recent wind-drifted snow today. The winds were calm and there is very limited snow available to transport with the firm surface snow conditions. </p>