Red Heather Deteriorating Conditions

Quick report

BCP · Nov 23, 2024 · South Coast Inland

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Quick report

Weather
stormy, wet, windy
Ride Type
mellowSlopes
Stayed Away
alpineSlopes, convexSlopes, steepSlopes
Riding Quality
ok
Snow Conditions
heavy, wet, windAffected
Avalanche Conditions
avalancheConditionSnow, avalancheConditionSound, avalancheConditionTemp

Spent the afternoon doing some work around the Red Heather Cabin. The weather and snowpack conditions deteriorated throughout the afternoon. We had a mix of rain on snow, graupel, ice pellets, and heavy snow. Winds were moderate, gusting strong from the S / SW. We had one loud settlement in the late afternoon walking through an open meadow.

Weather

Wind Speed
windSpeedModerate
Blowing Snow
moderate
Rainfall Rate
showers
Sky Condition
overcast
Snowfall Rate
1
Wind Direction
SW
New Snow24 Hours
14
Temperature Trend
rising
Precipitation Type
mixedSnowRain

Warm, windy, mixed precip throughout the afternoon. A very coastal afternoon. The weather was deteriorating further by 5pm when we left the field.

Snowpack

Depth
100
Obs Type
summary
Site Aspect
W
Site Elevation
1450
Ski Penetration
29
Foot Penetration
50
Cracking Observed
1
Site Elevation Band
tln
Surface Conditions
newSnow
Whumpfing Observed
1

20-30cm's of moist storm snow was sitting on a 15cm layer of dry older storm snow. Increasing resistance below. The lower snowpack consisted of a few crusts and moist polycrystals to ground. We suspect the loud settlement we heard was on the interface between the surface storm snow and the dry lower density snow below.