Quick report
Recent natural avalanches, a snowmobilier-triggered slide today, and poor snowpack structure clearly indicate that the snowpack is unstable and will not hold up to tonight's storm.
No cracking or collapsing due to limited trail-breaking.Weather
- Cloud Cover
- broken
- Wind Loading
- moderate
- Recent Snowfall
- Storm snow since (1/6): 26 cm @ Couch TH, 40 cm at 7,000' near Couch Summit
- Snow Avail For Transport
- large amounts
Scrappy low clouds and sun breaks before 11:00 AM. Clouds thickened, wind speeds increased, and light snow began around 1 PM.
Snowpack
I dug one quick snowpit on a NW-facing slope at 7,000'. The snowpack was essentially storm snow over two prominent SH layers over facets to the ground. ECTs returned ECTP7 at the ground and ECTP4 on the upper SH layer (see video).
Avalanche
- Size
- D1.5
- Count
- 3
- Aspect
- SE
- Trigger
- N
- Elevation
- 8400 ft
I also observed some smaller wind slab avalanches in the Soldier Mtn Foothills, but there was limited snow cover, and they were confined to very near loaded ridgelines.