Week in Review for 3/31/2018 - 4/6/2018

Submitted by brandon on Fri, 04/06/2018 - 12:20
Dates of the Week: 
3/31/2018 to 4/6/2018
  • Loose wet - (0 natural, 1 skier triggered reported)
  • Deep slab problem for rain on snow event late March 6 into March 7.
  • Increasingly well established melt-freeze conditions. Snowpack ripeness varies by aspect and elevation. In general, the snowpack is at or near full ripeness on all aspects below 7,000'. Up to about 8,000' E-SE-S-SE-W aspects are at or near full ripeness. NW-N-NE aspects 7,000' - 8,000' are still mostly snow colder than 0 deg C with a snowpack depth of 1.7 to 4+ meters. All aspects above 8,000' have varying degrees of ripening with a very wide spread. For example, one NE aspect observed on March 3 at 9,500' only had wet snow in the top 5 to 10 cm of the snowpack. The rest of the snowpack on that slope was several meters deep and had yet to enter melt phase.
  • Remains of February facet layer now mostly rounded but still a sigtnificant density change within the lower snowpack. Tests indicate layer is still likely to propagate if failure can be initiated.
  • High pressure early in the week
  • Cloud cover and some areas of poor overnight snow surface refreeze mid week, especially in the northern half of the forecast area and below 8,000'.
  • Atmospheric River event with snow level to 11,000'+ started the night of March 5 and continued through March 7.