Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/22/2019
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Pittsburg area snow and wind obs
Aspect: South West, West
Elevation: 9,400 – 11,200
Avalanches:
two wind slabs on same feature SSW. 2 x SS-ASi-R1D.5
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with light snowfall throughout the day. Winds at ridge top picked up around 130pm out of the west-drifting of snow with gusts to ~30mph. By 5pm snowfall had largely stopped with accumulations during the day of less than an inch.
Snowpack: New snow accumulations since Monday 2/18 were only about 5 to 6 inches total – certainly some settlement happened in new snow during the week but minimal accumulation from several days of very light snow. At a near treeline location, 11,000′, we found a leeward terrain feature that faces SSW with thin shallow Wind Slabs forming ~5 inches thick. This feature was very small and a known drifty piece of terrain but signals that Wind Slabs are certainly starting to build with ample soft snow around for transport.
Photos:
