Quick report
- Aspect
- Northwest
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2377 m
- Slope Angle
- 20°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>None of the 5 red flags were observed, you have to dig to understand the current avalanche hazard.</p>
We went for a tour in Lambs Canyon today to check out the November facets and new snow at lower elevation terrain. We stopped for a hasty pit on a N-facing slope at 7200' and found the snowpack to be wet below the New Years' snow all the way to the ground. We dug a full snowpit on a NW-facing slope at 7800' and were surprised to find a much drier snowpack than a few hundred feet lower. At this location, the November facets were still F hardness and dry-moist. An ECT resulted in ECTP-25 at these facets 80cm beneath the snow surface.
Signs of instability remain hard to find without digging into the snow. While the November facets are buried deep up high in the central Cottonwoods and trending in the right direction, these lower elevation periphery zones seem to be lagging behind in the healing process. In this zone, the PWL is still in the top meter of the snowpack and showed propagation in test results. Therefore, we kept to lower angle terrain.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>While the snowpack was saturated below 7500', slopes above this elevation were much less wet than expected. At our pit location at 7800' on a NW slope, we found propagation at the November facet interface (ECTP-25, down 80cm).</p>
Soft powder from the New Years storm continues to ride fantastically. ~1' of soft powder above the 20221231 rain/rime crust. We could really feel the crust beneath the new snow while riding below 7500'.