- Submitted by
- southrockies
- Observations date
- Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 19:00
- Location
- 49.858200° N 115.011100° W
- Reporting on
- Snow conditions
%2F-115.0111%2C49.8582%2C8%2C0%2C0%2F1026x200%3Faccess_token%3Dpk.eyJ1IjoiYXZhbGFuY2hlY2FuYWRhIiwiYSI6ImNqd2dvZmUxdzE4ZWg0M2tkaXpuNG95aTQifQ.pBLM87fE3sIxRJqJT7Bf7g&w=1200&q=75 "Hot Cement on Loose Cornflakes")
Quick
Avalanche
Snowpack
Weather
Incident
Snow conditions
- Riding quality was:
- Terrible
- Snow conditions were:
- Heavy
- We stayed away from:
- Steep slopes
Information
- The day was:
- Sunny
- Warm
- Avalanche conditions
- Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
- Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.
- Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.
Comments
It was "whumpfy" and super hot in the Nordstrom area of the South Rockies this afternoon. We could hear loose wet avalanches coming down all day and saw evidence of numerous naturally triggered slides. Breaking trail was like wading through wet cement piled on loose cornflakes and we had huge settlements and shooting cracks with almost every step at times. The snowpack consisted of a saturated layer of mushy "isothermal" snow on top of weak sugary depth hoar and facets on the ground. With temperatures at treeline a balmy 8.5C it was a day better suited to suntanning and beverages on your deck than skiing which could only be described as worse than terrible.
