Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Collapsing
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>On sheltered slopes there wasn't really a slab formed. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I dug a quick pit at about 9500' E/NE facing and was a little surprised to see that the total 'pack was about 4' deep; more than I anticipated. The new snow came away from what I assume was a sun crust - and slab - from last week at about 15 taps, but not cleanly. It then broke again at the ground with moderate effort where the slab lay on the facets. </p> <p>We did work on keeping our slope angles low; fortunately the new snow has settled out a little and it's light enough that it skied pretty fast, so low angle was all that was needed for fun. However, on our exit as I was photographing a skier coming by I got a big whoomph, dropped an inch, and had cracks ripple all around me (see pic). That was the only whoomph all day and fortunately it was on a <30 degree slope; basically it was an "avalanche" that didn't actually run. </p> <p> The bottom of the run got steeper, but there was enough shrubbery and we were bouncing off the bottom - ie likely only new snow, with a bit more of a SE aspect - so we felt there was pretty good bonding for our exit. Of course, it'll still be skitchy for a bit, but at some point the snow may stack up enough that the PWL may not be affected by the added weight of a skier? Will be a couple more settled feet, methinks. </p>