Date of Observation: 11/24/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Purple Ridge Lap. Easterly, 9,600-11,500ft.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: None
Weather: Trace of new snow. Few clouds. Moderate winds continuing to transport a little snow near ridgelines.
Snowpack: The recent northerly wind event sure wasn’t kind to the snow surface and riding conditions. Many slopes now have a variety of lovely textures like wind-board, wind crust, firm wind texture, soft wind texture, and wind-exposed crusts. Though it’s not all doom and gloom, there are still some areas with a soft snow surface, just fewer of those areas than a couple of days ago.
I didn’t encounter any thick wind drifts, but there were a lot of thin, hard slabs or wind-boards dispersed through the terrain. Given how weak the old snow is, these thin drifts often collapsed and occasionally produced shooting cracks. Though the actual slab size was very small. Looking around the area there were some cross-loaded terrain features and a few southerly-facing slopes, that may be holding some bigger slabs.
Photos:-
- Wind textured facets below treeline.
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- Purple Ridge
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- Classic thin wind-board over facets.
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- Classic thin wind-board over facets.
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- Example of some areas that may have a thicker wind-deposited slab. In this case, a cross-loaded westerly slope and a wind-loaded southeasterly slope. Both with big fetches..
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- Not all shiny things are good things.
