Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>No obvious red flags with the exception of a buried, persistent weak layer, which has been slowly gaining strength and stability. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Yes, the usual suspect: a layer of faceted snow at mid pack is slowly gaining strength and stability. I did not dig a profile due to time constraints but I probed with my pole dozens of times. Yes, the layer is still down there but it's quite variable and the NW facing slopes in that bowl tend to be somewhat unrepresentative of the more dangerous aspects. I get the feeling, though, that the deeper snowpack in Little Cottonwood Canyon has allowed for more stable conditions than what I and others have been finding in the thinner snowpack areas. Many of the steeper E and N facing slopes in that drainage have tracks in terrain 35 degrees or steeper without incident. We're in one of those tricky, worrisome times when the snowpack slowly gains enough strength that the bolder travelers start to creep into bolder terrain. But with a little more snow load in the forecast for tomorrow, it will not only entice more travelers but add a little more weight onto the buried weak layers, which is sometimes a bad combination. I suspect that the deeper snowpack areas like LCC, ithe new load may not be enough to reactivate the deeper weak layers but in the thiner snowpack areas it might be just enough when provoked in just the right spot. I'm usually happy to let others experiment while I like to get a late start and watch from a distance. </p>
Actually, quite good turning conditions with about 4 inches of dense powder on a very supportable base. The surface snow was both older, rimed snow combined with about an inch of new snow overnight. Still good snow on most aspects. Low angle riding is the best. WPG was operating in the Spire and Lake Peak area much of the afternoon and they skied up the usual NE facing slopes that often get skied. So we veered left and went up into Columbine Bowl / Birthday Chutes area and took three runs on the lower half of that terrain from near 10,000' and below. There were old tracks on the looker's right of the bowl with an uptrack in the steep terrain along the shoulder and they got away with skiing several of the steeper, NW facing slopes without incident. I elected to break a trail up the looker's left of the bowl, which is gentler and safer and also had the advantage of being untracked, for some reason.