Wind Affected Snow, Crusts, Wet Snow, and Soft Snow on Red Lake Peak

Winds at Red Lake Peak were calm today. Evidence of strong NE and E winds over the last few days existed in this area in the form of firm scoured slopes on exposed N-NE-E aspects, thin breakable wind crusts in sheltered areas, and other wind created features like ripples, sastrugi, and small drifts spread across the peak. Despite these wind-sculpted surfaces, observations found no evidence of lingering instability associated with wind slabs. Today warm sunny weather caused the snow to become wet and sticky on sun-exposed slopes and left a sun crust on those slopes once the sun departed. 

Snowpit data from a N aspect near 9000 ft. showed a shallow snowpack with a well-developed layer of weak faceted snow at the bottom of the snowpack. Tests on this layer indicated that it would be hard to trigger currently, but that it could still reactivate if enough load was added to the snowpack.

Overall the snowpack remains shallow in this area and numerous exposed and barely covered obstacles still exist. 

Photo: 2-4 mm facets from near the bottom of the snowpack at the coordinates attached to this observation.