Quick report
- Aspect
- West
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 2865 m
- Slope Angle
- 26°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>We were very surprised by the depth of the basal facets. 70cm is some of the deepest facet layers I have found. There was a solid, cohesive slab on top of these facets.</p>
The cornice on the north/south ridgeline was massive. A section about 100M long had broken off (I assume naturally). See photo 1.
On the ridge, the cornice had cracked the snowpack back ~8M with a large crack (photo 2). In places, the crack was more then 1M deep (photo 3).
I have been traveling on this ridge for around 15 years and I have never seen a crack like this. This is must 1 more item this year showing how unusual our snowpack is. Many years there would have been a skin track on the cornice side of this crack. With the new snow we have had, cornices have grown huge and need to be given a lot of room.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I was curious to how the snowpack on the NW end of the Park City Ridgeline had changed over the past 2 weeks with all of the new snow. I was happy with the stability test results (ECTX, CT22, CT17) showing that the snowpack <strong>might</strong> be starting to strengthen. The large layer of facets that is only buried 1M is still a big concern and enough for me to not venture onto slopes over 28 degrees. While the stability tests indicate possible strengthening, the snowpack is still suspect to me and I am not trusting it yet. </p> <p>There is a significant amount of new snow for the wind to transport. See the photos below. The cornice on the ridge is as large as I have ever seen it and had a huge amount break off.</p>
Exposed ridgelines were wind scoured. Protected areas had very low density snow from the last storm on top of the past storm snow that has started to settle.