New wind slabs in Snyder

Location Name: Snyder Lake - GNP Observation date: Friday, November 20, 2020 - 21:00	Is this an Avalanche Observation: No

Observation made by: Public

Tabs

Quick Observation

Visit to Snyder Lakes basin on an ice climbing mission. Last week's 8-16" powder above 5000' has been reduced to 3-8" mush on the sunny aspects and then capped by our newest melt-freeze (not supportable in boots). This crust is now buried by another 5-10" of new snow from the past couple days with some areas nearing 20" deep due to recent wind transport.
Calm winds below 5500' with light-moderate winds from variable directions above that elevation - our high point was about 6500'. This was causing a lotta swirling and side-ways spindrift at mid-upper elevations in the basin and by mid afternoon a few fresh winds slabs 4-10" thick had formed. For the most part these new slabs were unreactive, but on steep test slopes if one performed the ice-tool-slap-above-the-bootpack test then you could get some minor cracking (2-4' long) and some little slabs to pop (photo).
We found no other signs of instability and did not see any avalanche activity. But visibility was often limited due to fog and on-again/off-again snow showers.

Snowpack, Avalanche, Weather Images:

Travel Details

Region:

Glacier National Park - McDonald Lake Area

Activity:

Hiking

Climbing or Mountaineering