Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

Toured on generally SW-S-SE facing slopes above Cutthroat Lake. The newest snow from 2/13 into 2/14 was feather light earlier in the day and lower on the slope. It ranged from 8-12" and sat atop a variety of surfaces, most notably a sun crust with buried surface hoar in some areas. In others the crust was absent, as was the hoar. We saw a fair amount of large surface hoar laying flat on the surface, some of which was, interestingly, raining down from nearby trees. At or near our high point of around 6700' the snow was more obviously wind affected and punchy, but wasn't cracking or collapsing. We did not go to the highest point of the peak, which was much more visibly wind affected.

The most surprising new snow issue we observed was later in the day at elevation <5000ft, above a small cliff and steeper gully feature, where all the new storm snow had become substantially more cohesive and was exhibiting some cracks around our skis. Easy sloughing of new snow from our turns in steeper terrain was becoming more significant at that point as well.