Pro Field Report

Basic Information

Observation Details

Observation Date:
February 3, 2022
Submitted:
February 3, 2022
Observer:
Chris Lundy
Zone or Region:
Galena Summit and Eastern Mtns
Location:
Upper Pole Creek (Most obs from 8500-9500', SE-E-NE)

Signs of Unstable Snow

Recent Avalanches? 
None Observed
Cracking? 
None Experienced
Collapsing? 
None Experienced

Snow Stability

Stability Rating: 
Very Good
Confidence in Rating: 
Moderate
Stability Trend: 
Steady

Bottom Line

Goals today were to look for recently-formed wind slabs and keep an eye on snow surfaces. While I saw evidence of recent wind, I did not find any wind slabs - even along a high corniced ridge. I suspect they exist but are likely isolated. Not surprisingly, snowpack surfaces are a weak mess of facets and crusts beneath 3" of newer snow. Likely to be a problem someday, but for the time being, it's keeping the skiing and riding conditions quite good.

Media/Attachments

The snow below the cornice has the texture of a wind slab, but was just a thin wind skin atop weak surface snow.

Advanced Information

Weather Summary

Cloud Cover:
Partly Cloudy
Temperature:
Felt like teens
Wind:
Light , NW
New/Recent Snowfall:
~7cm since 1/30

Warmer than past couple days, but still fairly cold. Winds looked like they were occasionally gusting to MOD based on occasional light wind transport, but they were light when I topped out on a ridge.

Snowpack Observations

I found 7cm of newer snow sitting on a variety of weak snow surfaces. A 20-30cm thick layer of well-developed FCsf exist on shady slopes - it's getting hard to punch in a skin track on steeper sidehills. Solars have a fairly stout crust with newer facets above and well-developed facets below.

I saw lots of areas with recent wind effect. A number of areas had the surface texture indicative of wind slabs, but ended up being a thin wind skin (see photo). I stomped along an upper elevation, corniced ridge and did some ski cutting on some mid-slope features that appeared loaded, but I did. not actually find any wind slabs.

Ski cutting produced some small dry loose slides that didn't gain a ton of mass, but did run fairly far. I would guess these would be a bigger problem in steeper and/or bigger terrain.

@9200', E: HS 160cm. Probed 12/11 down about 120cm or so but it was pretty subtle.

Avalanche Problems

I did not observe any avalanche problems.

Terrain Use

I had no terrain closed in my morning trip plan. Terrain choices were limited more by solo travel and work environment.