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Judging by @Dammit's photo upthread- I think thats going to form a persistent weak layer, and you may be disappointed by lack of improvement over the week.
Yeah, i'm being overly optimistic. Previous pack is weak AF. Just holding on to the slim hope that the big rise in temps and a few days of being above freezing in the afternoon might improve things enough on the South facing slopes.
We're staying with the head of the local mountain rescue service and the plan was to do some touring with him next week. He knows a thing or two about snow. Might see if we can just take advantage of the conditions and do a bunch of avalanche training instead.
Weather forecasts can be so frustrating. Conditions were ideal for safe backcountry routes and the forecast, superficially, was for a few days of light snow showers if you only bothered to look at the BBC. 1m of new snow later...
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Stonehedge
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Avo training is always good.
I need to be in the mountains again.
6 years now without a ski, because work.
8 years since I last set off a slide.
10 years since I last dropped an explosive off a cliff, on a piece of string.
That is depressing (in a totally GC way) -
The local forecasts were also quite low compared to what actually fell, especially here in the west. I think in a couple of days it could have settled to be quite stable. The snowpack underneath wasn't deep, but has become quite stable over the last few weeks. Not a crazy amount of surface hoar like before the last snow. And the mild temperatures should give the new (very wind loaded) snow a decent chance to bond. I wish I had paid more attention in school when we were learning how to read and analyse the raw snowpack data from SLF. Huge amount of useful information there if you know how to read it!
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chiroshi
What was the base structure like pre-snowfall?
Hoar?
Sun Crust?
Judging by @Dammit's photo upthread- I think thats going to form a persistent weak layer, and you may be disappointed by lack of improvement over the week.
But my avalanche tekkers are weak these days.
(Ask a friendly local guide for a breakdown- I want to hear about the crystals!)