Preserved storm and wind layers on Red Lake Peak

Warm day on Red Lake Peak, but reflective snow and light winds kept deeper layers cold with recent instabilities preserved. On steep, sunny aspects, shallow, wet snow on top of previous rain crust made for easy triggering of small Wet Loose instabilities. Several small natural Wet Loose slides were observed on sunny slopes, especially near rocks. One large (D2+) Wet Loose was observed in a steep gully above Red Lake proper. This slope is often triggered via Gazex by CalTrans, but today's Wet Loose was not. Debris estimated to be up to 2m deep at terrain constriction. No skier tracks in the area were observed.

Pics 1 and 2: Storm and wind instabilities still evident in both column and informal tests on wind loaded aspects. The deepest fracture was just above an intact graupel layer. This graupel layer was observed at varying heights on N/NE aspects, including at the surface. It's possible this layer was associated with human triggered avalanches in the area recently, both reported to SAC and observed from a distance in the field today. A crown above Crater Lake was both wider and higher than typical, which could be explained by this graupel layer, though not confirmed by direct observation today.