Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Rather weak snowpack with widespread facets throughout thinner snowpack areas. Sandboxing in some areas. Sunday/Monday storm snow providing a 4F- slab on top of F hard faceted layers.</p>
Two tours this weekend involved looking at thinner snowpack areas in Big Cottonwood drainages (Mineral/Cardiff/Broads) where the snowpack is < 1 meter. Currently the snowpack is stable with a generally Low hazard, but also quite weak in thinner snowpack areas and it may become reactive with a series of moist & windy systems forecasted beginning mid-week. Several quickpits yesterday and today, and most everything is ECTX, or ECTN failing within recent storm snow or at the interface with the faceted layer from 1/1-1/4.
In areas where the snowpack is thicker (> 120 cms) the overall structure looks good, and buried faceted layers are continuing to gain strength.
Wind drifts are currently unreactive where we were traveling, but I would still avoid steep, upper elevation terrain facing northwest through northeast that has been windloaded as drifts are likely sitting on top of weaker facets.
Snowpack
Surface weakening, with a layer of near-surface facets in the top 3-5 cms. Still not especially weak, but something to monitor with loading likely by mid-week. HS generally < 1 meter where we were traveling (northerly aspects up to 9200')