Sastrugi is not a pasta

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, warm, windy

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, openTrees, sunnySlopes

Stayed Away

convexSlopes, steepSlopes

Riding Quality

ok

Snow Conditions

powder, windAffected

Avalanche Conditions

avalancheConditionSlab

Today we saw one new natural wind slab avalanche that likely occurred in the last 12-24 hours, on a steep north facing feature just above treeline. It was a size 1 and about 10 - 15 cm deep. We suspect this ran on the firm melt-freeze crust which exists almost everywhere underneath the new snow, except for on high north-facing slopes. Almost everywhere is wind affected from strong south winds. We were able to sled cut small lee slopes and produce cracking up to 40 cm deep. We did find soft snow and good riding in a sheltered alpine basin.