Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Upper elevation shady north through northeast facing slopes are a mix of crusts and weak surface snow and quite weak faceted snow near the ground.</p>
Access into the Whitney area is a little rough right now with rutted snow packed roads, patches of dirt and generally thin snow conditions.
Looking around the Moffit Basin area, some north facing slopes look fairly white, while the south slopes are still mostly bare ground.
Many upper elevation north facing slopes in the the Moffit Basin went through a natural avalanche cycle during the storm prior to Thanksgiving. Steep rocky terrain with thin weak snow were the places that saw avalanches.
1. This small natural slide resulted from the surface snow that continues to weaken with clear cold nights. 2. This extended column test propagated a fracture across the column with 13 taps from the elbow. The weak sugary faceted snow near the ground is the weak layer.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>No real issue right now, but once the snow returns the north and northeast facing slopes will likely see avalanches. There is quite weak faceted snow near the ground and with some added weight from snow and wind it should quickly overload the weak snow pack.</p>
Early season conditions with a variety of crusts, weak sugary snow on shady north aspects and generally thin snow cover.