Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Winds and cooler temps today kept the mountain frozen hard above 6,000'. On south and east aspects above 6,000', there is 1-2" of crunchy snow and ice overlying much harder ice. At 6,000- 7,000', the substrate is hard frozen snow, but above that it is a hard clear ice layer at least several inches thick. At no time today did my ski pole and crampons penetrate more than 1-1.5"

At around 6,000' the snow transitioned to spring-like "corn snow" that stayed unchanged to a depth of more than a foot.

At 7,500', near the top of a 30 degree slope covered with 10 to perhaps 30 feet of snow, very large glide cracks have appeared in the last 3 days. The largest crack is a foot wide, several feet deep, and more than 100' long. These are usually a spring feature on this slope. In previous years the cracks have quit spreading at 12-18" and nothing exciting happens.