Quick report
- Aspect
- Southwest
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2987 m
- Slope Angle
- 15°
I wasn't in any north facing terrain today but feeling the weak snowpack down low on the south side I dug up higher where it mattered and found quite a bit of faceting below our recent snow. This profile was taken in a place that had no October snow and as you can see even with the thin snow pack the Thanksgiving snow is rounded and tight. My concern now moves to the facets mid pack.
On top above the north slope I was able to easily sluff some of the new snow and as you can see there is quite a bit of loading.
Finally, it looks like my sled picked up 6 inches of snow while I was out hiking in the south trees up high. That's heavy snowfall and a sure sign to stay away from steeps.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Yesterday, I noted widespread wind slabs but the slabs were quite thin and limited to exposed terrain, however as we saw yesterday in the Cental Wasatch, these new slabs are quite sensitive. Now hidden under the new medium density warm advection snow with more widespread wind loading on top and we find ourselves with a highly complex and spatially variant snow pack.</p>