Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Cracking
Patchy clouds all day. The low cloud layer in the valley crept upwards all day, and by our exit at 3pm the cloud deck was solidly above us, around 10,000ft. Cold temps; didn't feel warmer than 15F. Most of the alpine bowls in White Pine are heavily wind affected, and have developed thick wind crusts with abundant sastrugi. Riding conditions are still great in sheltered terrain.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Abundant wind transport and wind affect noted throughout the day. Winds were generally light at the bottom of White Pine, gusting to moderate from the N through NW. Large amounts of wind transport were noted on the ridgelines around White Pine, with winds at elevation mostly in the NW direction. Cross-loading was observed across the W face of Red Stack, with cornices forming across a sub-ridge. Large amounts of snow were being blown over the saddle between Red Stack and Red Baldy and the Red/White Baldy col. Snow was also being transported from Red Pine to White Pine over the ridge, and cross-loading features in White Pine. While the high alpine was clearly taking a lot of wind, the more sheltered terrain in trees or closer to the floor of the drainage was not very wind-affected.</p> <p> </p> <p>We observed cracking in small, fresh wind drifts, but nothing large enough to produce an audible collapse or slide on test slopes. One avalanche we observed on the SE aspect of Lake Peak (see separate avalanche report) may have been a wind slab, but was equally likely to have been a wet loose slide.</p> <p>We observed three avalanches that could have been wet loose (two on Red Stack and one on Lake Peak, see separate avalanche report), but temps seemed cold enough (and sun patchy enough) that I did not think wet snow was an issue where we traveled today. We did not observe any wet surface snow on E-N-W aspects where we traveled.</p>