Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Wind loading in the high alpine on Mellenthin (N face). Cracking in the upper rain crust under the shallow powder in the skin track. Several collapses including one 8 meters across. Snowpack structure is a mixed bag of surface powder, rain crust x 2, and a foundation on facets.</p>
Finally real winter in the La Sals, hopefully much more to come! Oddly, the Christmas rain crust has created somewhat of a supportable "base" for the new snow. But don't let it fool you, the dragon is still lurking if you punch through, which I did to the ground every time I stepped off my skis. Ski lightly!
I had several collapses on N and W facing terrain near treeline today, one of which happened after I jumped hard in 3 separate places on the same test slope. Bottom line: the facets are nearly everywhere we want to ski, and you could get some distance onto a slope before it actually cut loose.
And one final unusual note: the stout rime ice (1-2 cm thick) was raining down off the burned trees all day, sometimes quite dramatically. Where it deposited under the trees formed hard, lumpy, inconsistent snow patches. When these patches re-freeze, watch out! One more obstacle to be aware of as we step out into marginally skiable terrain.
Keep doing your dances, prayers, rituals, whatever works! Hopefully winter will stick around!
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Same as listed in today's forecast, wind loading of new snow onto N slopes above treeline.</p> <p>Firm and sometimes breakable rain crusts over bottom layers of loose facets. Strong over very weak.</p>
Total snow depth 60-80 cm. Fast, shallow powder supported by the rain crust made for fun low-angle skiing. We experienced some surface cracking in the skin track (see pic), and several small to large (8 meter diameter) collapses in N-facing undulating terrain. Also observed some surface hoar up to 1 cm in open areas near tree line (NTL). Finally, and of particular note was the substantial rime on the high branches of the burned trees. It was crashing down in big ice showers all day.