Professional Observation

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Snow Stability

Bottom Line

Recent strong winds have done a number on the 2 feet of fluff we got Dec 11-13. Travel anywhere near and above tree line that was exposed to the wind was either on bullet proof wind pack or a breakable punchy wind crust. Needless to say, the skiing was not great. This stuff was so inconsistently scattered that one minute your on top and the next you could of sworn you just skied into quick sand. Looking across the way to West facing slopes on Wheeler and it's hard to imagine the story reads any different over there.

Underneath all this are still our lovely facets. Hard slabs can make it more difficult to effect weak layers beneath them but they also do a tremendous job of communicating propagation if you do find the sweet spot and trigger an avalanche. The denseness also means that hard slab avalanches don't need to be particularly large to be destructive.