Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Northwest winds today were adding to the hazard creating some drifted snow that would crack out along the windy terrain. I did experience one fairly unsettling collapse as I approached a ridge line, but did not observe any cracking in the snow. I was finding a fairly deep snow pack for this area with about 170cm (70") but could still locate sugary faceted snow near the ground and a ECP28 which I found a little surprising. </p>
In this snow pit where the total snow depth was 170cm (70"), I was still able to get a crack to propagate across the column after 28 hard hits from the shoulder. This is good information that the snow pack can produce an avalanche on the weak snow near the ground. It is more difficult to trigger an avalanche where the snow pack is getting deeper, but where the snow is thinner it becomes much more likely.
The recent wind drifted snow today would crack out, but this problem might be less sensitive tomorrow.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Even where the snow pack is getting deeper I was still able to get the weak sugary snow near the ground to collapse with an ECT test, although it did take several hard taps from the shoulder. Feels like all you need to do is give a good thump to a slope or find a shallow spot and the whole snow pack comes crashing down. </p> <p> The wind drifted snow today was cracking out up to a couple feet deep while traveling along the more windy exposed ridges. </p>
Mostly nice soft powder conditions with some wind affected snow in the exposed areas. Still a little punchy in low and mid elevation areas, but gain some elevation and better supportable riding and quite good snow.