Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Upper Slate
Date of Observation: 11/10/2020
Name: Zach Guy and Zach KinlerSubject: Welcome back winter!
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9700-11,600′
Avalanches:
None observed. Limited visibility of alpine terrain.
Weather: Broken to overcast skies. Moderate northwest winds at ridgetop. Very light snowfall (S-1).
Snowpack: Simple snowpack with minimal signs of instability. 15″ to 18″ of right-side-up storm snow across previous bare ground. Previous drifting from the southwest had left drifts up to 3′. Shifting winds were lightly redistributing the snow off of northerly aspects this afternoon. In a few wind drifted features, we produced stubborn cracking up to 10″ deep and 8′ long. We went sniffing for a persistent slab problem on shady aspects here but couldn’t find direct feedback. On a northeast aspect at 11,000′, we found old faceted and crusty snow near the ground, but it wasn’t propagating in pits and didn’t produce any obvious signs of instability (see photo). The layer was only an inch thick on the ground and somewhat discontinuous here due to rocks and shrubs.
Photos:
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- Cracking 10″ deep in a wind drifted terrain feature
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- Looking for a developing persistent slab problem
