Quick report
Only slight cracking was observed (<1m long) in storm slabs, primarily above treeline. Did kick off a rug-sized ~15cm deep soft slab while dropping in E-NE terrain. It was slow-moving and without consequences. You can see the minor soft slab release in turn one of this video https://photos.app.goo.gl/NiT4kHfJ82rJXVN98.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- few
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- About 30cm of settled new snow from 3/23-25
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Strong northern winds. Calm and sunny by the afternoon. Snow available for transport on Southerly/Sunny and windward (SW) slopes will decrease quickly over the next 72 hours.
Snowpack
Mostly unreactive storm slab cracking on S-SW aspects. Less than on Monday. There was a thin, unreactive wind-skin in isolated areas. It looked like some pillowy wind-loaded terrain on E-SE aspects above 11800' in Humphreys Cirque. North slopes of Upper HardCore Ridge and Humphreys Cirque had Sastrugi and wind-scouring, including the Brown North Star Chute. Some debris was noted. It appears that there was a soft storm slab release on ~NE aspect of Rustlers Peak. Looks like ~D1. Likely happened during the storm3/24-25.
Dug one pit on NE aspect in The Cirque. Pit attached. Performed three ECTs on eastern aspect. All pits had similar results. Strong to moderate strength, improving structure, and no propagation.
Evaluated snowpack near 11800 in Sundance Bowl of Arizona Snowbowl. Strong to moderate strength, moderate to good structure, and no propagation.
Expect to find (on approximately W-SW-S-SE-E slopes) a refrozen and very stout m/f crust (knife+ to impenetrable hardness) under the new 3/24-25 snow. This hard layer formed during the warm days of ~3/21-22. It is very unlikely that the weight of a human will collapse any weak layers below this strong crust.
More winds are forecast, and there is snow available for transport. However, the availability of powder snow on southerly/sunny slopes is decreasing rapidly due to melting.
I observed no issues with persistent weak layers in today's obs.