Paul20180317 from Santiago Rodriguez on Vimeo.
WHAT A DAY YESTERDAY - SATURDAY, March 18th, 2018. The skiing was phenomenal. Face Shots all day. And very little evidence of instability, that allowed us to ski steep gullies.
Check how much snow was at my vehicle at the end of the day.
Yesterday we were on our second day of an Avalanche Science Level 1 course. Below three pictures of Paul a participant, thinking at the trailhead and later riding at the Summit Creek Glades.
This is a very short post. Gotta get going to the last and third day of the Avi L1 course at MCS. But will share first a brief summary of stability obs. Yesterday at a wind loaded locations the snowpack was reactive, we experienced a localized "whumpf" and at steep roll-overs ski cuts produced in cracks. Early in the day, the snowpack was unreactive, but as the storm totals exceeded the 30 cms in the afternoon we started to observe reactivity increase. The storm slab problem was restricted to an interface that yesterday afternoon was present below 20 cms. This interface was easily recognized with a tilt test (easy failures, single tap after 15-degree tilt).
Today it will be prudent to approach terrain with a dose of respect. Last night precipitation (approaching the 40-50 cm depth at specific locations), as well as the slab gaining cohesivity (due to rounding/sintering as well as wind effects), might augment the reactivity of the storm slab. And - even when yesterday's forecast called for light winds at MCS, there were locations with sustain moderate winds with significant snow transport and slab hardening!
Have fun! And get out there, pow conditions are great.
