Wet Snow on Talking Mountain

Location Name: 
Talking Mountain
Region: 
Echo Summit Area
Date and time of observation: 
Tue, 02/11/2014 - 15:30
Location Map: 
United States
38° 49' 58.548" N, 120° 4' 8.202" W
See map: Google Maps
US


Red Flags: 
Rapid warming
Observation made by: Forecaster
Snowpit Observations
More detailed information about the snowpack: 

A 180 to 240 cm snowpack existed above 7500 ft in this area. On northerly aspects, the storm snow showed signs of continued settlement and consolidation. Some less dense layers still remained within the storm snow in the top 1-1.5m of the snowpack, but data and observations did not reveal any signs of instability associated with the storm snow weakness. As the winds picked up yesterday they started transporting snow at the upper elevations and adding more wind loading to leeward slopes.

Above 8500 ft. weak snow still exists at the bottom of the snowpack. Data and observations indicated that while this weakness remains, it would be very difficult to trigger.

Some skier triggered wet loose sluffs occurred on steep, sun-exposed, S facing test slopes between 7600 and 8200 ft. on Talking Mountain. I also noted some wet loose avalanche activity on the SE-S aspect of Jake's Peak as I was driving around Emerald Bay.

Photo 1: Runnels on a S facing aspect at about 7200 ft.

Photo 2: Skis sinking into unsupportable wet snow at 7500 ft on a S aspect

Photos 3-4: Loose wet instabilities on steep S facing test slopes between 7800 ft and 8200 ft.

Snowpit or crown profile photo or graph: 
Snowpack photos: 
Weather Observations
Blowing Snow: 
Yes
Cloud Cover: 
25% of the sky covered by clouds
Air temperature: 
Above Freezing
Wind Speed: 
Moderate
Precipitation: 
None
Air temperature trend: 
Cooling
Wind Direction: 
Southwest
Accumulation rate: 
None
More detailed information about the weather: