Snowpack

Observation: Mirror Lake Environs

Staples, Gardiner, Berry, Dyer, BagnellUintas
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Quick report

Red Flags
Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comment
<p>We had a surprising number of collapses today. Several collapses seemed to happen over a large area. </p>

Lots of unknowns with the snowpack and the PWL. Here's what I know:

  1. we had many collapses today (a bad sign)
  2. we didn't see any avalanches on the PWL nor were there any reports of any
  3. the odds of triggering a slide on the PWL have gone down a lot, but they are not zero.
  4. the best places to trigger a slide on facets is in a thin area near a rock (photo below)

There were some dry loose sluffs of the new snow from Thursday (first photo). There were also some loose wet slides (second photo)

Snowpack

Instability Comment
<p>There's a widespread weak layer, and it's easy to find but easy to forget about. All the collapses we got were a good reminder that the layer is there.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, here's the thing - the weak layer that was collapsing is different in the starting zones. Better or worse? I don't know, but I know it's different because most avalanche paths have certainly avalanched one or more times.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lots of roller balls today. A few small wet loose avalanches. </p>

Go anywhere hero conditions. However sunny slopes got quite wet today, but shady slopes will still have soft dry powder.