Recent Avalanches

Red Flags were mostly relegated to instabilities within the new snow that were reactive in only the upper snowpack down to 20cm. Releasing small pieces of cornices resulted in a small pocket of Soft Wind Slab Wind that was 45cm deep and 3 meters wide. Slope cuts and these cornice releases were easily able to initiate fast running entrainment of the surface snow that were mostly running in the upper 10cm and occasionally digging down to 45 cm deep. There were Isolated natural Dry Loose observed in steep cliff band areas on all aspects. Of Note was the obvious avalanche activity that was a result of natural Cornice Failures at 9800' N and NE, and one area was at least 50 to 75 meters wide and ran to transition zones piling up significant debris piles. It was still easy to identify the current weak layer that lies directly above the dirt layer that is now buried up to close to a meter deep on the polar aspects. Shears were moderate to hard in hasty pits and there was no indication they were reactive in the steep terrain ridden as the slab was very soft and uncohesive. In areas where there was a significant contributing factor of wind to help make the slab potentially cohesive this problem was Likely more of a concern and a problem. Finally there was a sensitive storm break weakness that was probably the most reactive in the polar areas traveled and it was anywhere from 15 to 25cm down.