Observation: Public

Observation Details

Signs of Unstable Snow

Observations

We started out moving through Bagley basin in the morning up onto the boulderfield. We noticed a small bit of graupel had previously fell and some surface hoar had formed overnight. It was noticable that a suncrust had formed to varying degrees on all southerly aspects from the previous day. The sun was out for most of the morning with a light wind out of the west with small intermittent clouds. While moving to the west off the north side of herman we saw wind scoured slopes with sastrugi. Clouds became more consistent by noon and by 12:30 it was snowing very lightly. Up at ridgeline we could see wind visibly loading a cornice facing to the west . We knocked a small piece of a cornice intentionally onto a slope below facing west and the piece slid on top of a suncrust without impacting the snow underneith. We did not witness any wind slabs throughout the day. Snow to the north was fairly preserved and was great skiing. It was still lightly snowing when we got to the parking lot but overall snowfall was less than 1 cm that day. In general a great day of skiing on the northerly sides of the compass and some survival skiing on southerly aspects only to get to better snow.