Wind Loading

Rapid Warming

Poor Snowpack Structure

Not much going on on the slopes I traveled - numerous drops of soft cornices and slope cuts produced no sluffs or slabs. Cracking of cornices and wind drifts was minor. No collapsing. The new snow seems to be stabalizing rapidly. Two layers of facets in the upper snowpack still have potential as weak layers, but they seem to need more of a load, or a faster load applied. Out of the last storm, only Brighton and Snowbasin reported more than an inch of storm water equivalent, which isn't much wieght. Most likely place to trigger a slide on these weak layers would be on a significantly wind drifted slope. Steeper south facing slopes may get active with more heating tomorrow. I think this would be new snow only, running on the sun crusts, which could allow for entrainment, and larger debris piles than expected.