Mt. Rose Observations

Strong SW winds with full blizzard like conditions in the late morning hours.  4-16'' of storm snow by midday depending on how much wind loading was occuring.  This storm snow was sitting on top of a rain crust that was formed over the last wet storm system.  The bond between storm snow and rain crust was good showing no signs of weakness.  All the weaknesses were within the storm snow appearing to be during a slight warming trend in the daytime hours with continued wind loading.  This wind slab was slightly more dense than the storm snow below it.  On mid slopes I could get this wind slab to run and propagate with a ski kick or ski cut.  Wind was the major factor with all results being mid slope and above, no instabilities observed at lower elevations or in protected areas.  I could not get to the upper ridges due to the strong winds but think there would be more developed/larger wind slabs in those areas.  These conditions continued as I left early afternoon with snowfall tappering off slightly.

Photo#1: Shooting cracks on a small windloaded convex rollover, 9200', north aspect.

Photo#2: 20' shooting cracks in windloaded terrain, 9300', north aspect.    

Photo#3: Looking toward ridgeline showing visibility and wind loading.