Friday, January 18, 2013

Strong Southerlies


Strong Southerly winds have scoured many aspects. Although it still looks wintry, the hills to the North are definitely not looking as uniformly white as they did yesterday or the day before.

 The soft snow that was present has been blown off and has either built up deeper drifts or has dissipated into the atmosphere. Even on lee aspects, such as the hillside on the left which has a North-Easterly aspects, there is not much snow.

 However, close to exposed ridges, there was a fair bit of snow being transported and deposited.

 Spindrift blowing off exposed ridges to the South-West.

In some locations, especially in sheltered locations adjacent to exposed ridges,  unstable areas of hard slab were being deposited. I came across this crack in a large drift behind some rocks on an Easterly aspect around 950 meters. It ran for about 4 metres. This is a pretty clear indicator for poor stability within these deposits.