Public Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We avoided the North and East upper elevation terrain. We were afraid of the wind-loaded slopes up higher as we could hardly see at times with the 30 plus mph gusts...Surface snow was getting slabby and hard to ski in exposed places. Soft snow was surviving just below the ridge in protected areas, but even lower and mid-elevation terrain was getting slabby in exposed areas.

Winds were strong out of the Southwest and were loading mostly Northern and eastern aspects. The exposed Southern ridges were scoured down to the rocks.

Visibility was tough at times but we could see mountains all over the valley with plumes of snow blowing off the peaks.

Our stability tests had some moderate and strong failures in compression but lacked propagation in an extended column test.

We refrained from the true summit's low visibility wind abuse and skied East, and WSW down and out...lower, protected snow was still good and soft and traveling fast at 3:30 PM.