SInce lots of people were hiking up Eaglecrest and enjoying the new snow today, we decided to focus our fieldwork there. The 30 cm of new snow was drifted by SW winds, an unusual storm wind direction. It was 50+ cm deep in the drifts while other areas were scoured.

There was adequate snowcover to ski carefully to the base of the ski area. The new snow below 500 m elevation was moist to wet. The wetter settled snow down low showed few signs of instability, but above 600 m this morning's new snow formed a moist, windloaded, and reactive slab over last night's light dry powder. Shooting cracks and mini-slabs occurred on most test slopes, there was a moderate sized skier-triggered slab on Waterfall run, and Middle Chute in the East Bowl Chutes slid, possibly as a natural release.

We cautiously did our snow tests skier's right of the ones from the 17th, on a gentle roll off to the side of the top of High Point, avoiding the larger, steep and loaded main slope. We dug only deep enough to compare the snowpack with that from two days ago.

Our Rutschblock, in shallower and lighter snow, started to crack on approach (#2), but did not slide until we made many hard jumps (#6) on the relatively flat 35° slope. Our AK Block, adjacent but in an area drifted in much more deeply, with a thicker and stronger windslab layer on top, fractured and slid as soon as we stepped onto it (#2). We judged it a much better representation of the behavior we were seeing on our test slopes, and chose not to descend the steep run below, opting instead to hike back up to the Ridge and then out to a gentler rib with small test rolls but no big slopes with serious consequences.

The snow was deep, but the heavy layer over light snow made for tip diving and bogging down with many falls, even on super-fat skis. It was hard to keep moving. Steeper slopes were better, but they were cracking, and even the small ones we rode produced mini-slabs as we turned on them. Once below 500 - 600 m, stability and turnability improved as the wetter snowpack there settled into a more uniform layer.

The current instability may settle out and bond fairly rapidly if temperatures stay mild and loading rates are low, but it may take a few days even with ideal conditions. Take care out there. New loading or cooler temperatures are likely to prolong and create instability.

This new snow should make a great base for the ski area, though, and there are plans afoot for a possible opening next weekend. Make your Christmas/Chanukkah/Kwanza/Solstice/Eid wishes for more snow than rain this week!