Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>While our persistent weak layer is not everywhere, it's causing problems where it is. Keeping note of these small events can hint at larger things to come when we get more significant loading. There was one snowboarder-triggered avalanche that our observer Hathcock reported to us later in the day—you can see his observation here (https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/97568). This avalanche started as a dry loose in the new snow on a NE aspect at 10,000 feet off Davenport, but gouged down all the way to the weak, faceted snow at the base of the snowpack. It ran more than 200 vertical feet. I was also able to spot a small slab avalanche that looked to break on weak snow at the base of the snowpack on a N-facing slope near 9800' on the Patsy Ridge above Michigan City. The trigger remains unknown. </p>
Coverage near East Bowl Pass. Looking towards East Bowl, then down Silver Fork's northerly slopes.
Towards Davenport.
Additional photos of Hathcock's slide that I happened upon.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>While inconsistent, the presence of old, faceted snow near the base of the snowpack on upper elevation westerly slopes unfortunately increases the number of slopes I'll be wary of heading into the next significant storm.</p>
3-5in of fresh snow from storms in the past 48 hours covered the ground above 9000' leading up to East Bowl Pass. Most of these slopes had soft surfaces of loose powder snow, with the steeper southerly slopes I traveled having a very thin (<1cm) melt-freeze crust. Significant past wind transport led to 10-20" wind deposits on the far side of East Bowl Pass.
The takeaway of the day for me was that I was able to find weak, old snow at the base of the snowpack on upper elevation westerly slopes in addition to the NW-N-E slopes we mentioned in the forecast. While I was not able to find this snow consistently upon digging eight different hasty pits spread out over the area, the presence of 4" of faceted snow below 5" of new snow on westerly slopes is of note.