Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Total depth on east facing at 8,800 feet was 135 cm. Bottom 40 cm still loose sugar, then a firm crust of about 10 cm, then increasingly light snow as you reached the top. Wind direction constantly shifting, creating odd mid-slope drifts of various aspects. </p>
Snowpack
About 8 inches of storm snow on east facing at about 8,800 feet. More dense than usual, but easy and fun turns and skinning. Snow felt very damp on faces and was beading up on packs and parkas, but did not clump between boot and binding like wet snow. Skinned and skied east facing and south facing. The south face was a mixed bag with a significant stout crust just below the storm snow from this weekend. The east face was smooth and predictable. Our group experienced no whumphing or cracking on either aspect. Wind was easily transporting snow at the ridgeline and far down the slope, including much crossloading. In our laps we watched an east-facing cornice growing that eventually snapped.