Public Observation

Observation Details

Observations

Toured up Red Mountain today. A bit of hiking is now required from the parking area. Above approx 8,000' the re-freeze was solid last night. For my 1100 descent, NNE aspects were still frozen, but a slight shift on to NE aspects resulted in fantastic corn. I've had a hard time finding non-three dimensional snow lately but I found it today on moderately steep NE aspects.

Of purely general interest, I found an old large and wide avalanche debris field (estimate D2.5) at 37.54041,-118.7391611 with numerous broken trees up to approx 6" in diameter. I found this to be interesting because this is a spot that I would normally say - "that wouldn't slide except in very unstable conditions," which we obviously had in April. It's also a non-obvious avalanche path, although a not-very-steep start zone is apparent.

I also took a drive up Convict on the way home and observed fairly terrifying creep cracks high up on Mono Jim on an avalanche path that runs out on to the summer trail on the lake. Hopefully the Forest Service will put up a warning sign on that area of the trail (if they haven't already).

Signs of Unstable Snow