Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Checked a lot of boxes for red flags today. I triggered one test slope onto me remotely just 2 steps off the skin track. I triggered another sympathetically onto the skin track after setting off a dry loose that ran the full depth of the new snow. See avalanche obs:</p> <p> https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/81536</p> <p>https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/81538</p> <p> Nearby, I had a sizable collapse (photo below) with visible surface cracking that wasn't quite steep enough to slide. Had numerous small collapses directly underfoot while skinning. Also had one rolling collapse that seemed to travel about 50ft in either direction of me at the base of a 25 degree slope, but there was no visible surface cracking, I think owing to the soft and deep snow.</p> <p>I saw a handful of small D1 point releases on the Ben Lomond side of the headwall, but was not close enough for a photo to be of use. I was actually a bit surprised to not see anything bigger, but the headwall looked relatively bare.</p> <p>Bailey's appeared to go wall-to-wall (see avalanche obs: https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/81534 ), with a crown line about 1/2 mile long. This isn't super common, but it has happened in the past. Since I was traveling solo, the distant photo in the obs will have to suffice as I was not willing to go tickle that dragon alone. </p>
Snow surface at about 7900ft with old surface undulations visible below the new snow.
Collapse with visible cracking on a test slope that wasn't quite deep enough to slide.
https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/81536
https://utahavalanchecenter.org/observation/81540
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p> Failure was happening at the new/old snow interface, with the full depth of new snow sliding on the old crust/facet combo. I know there were some recent reports of surface hoar, but I did not find any today, with NSF on top of the crust instead. The facet stripe on top of the crust was about 5cm thick. Where there was insufficient cohesion for a soft slab failure, I triggered dry loose avalanches, but they felt much too deep for me to want to call them "sluffs."</p> <p> </p> <p>What was most noteworthy today was the low elevation instability. This is not super common on Cutler Ridge and definitely made for spooky conditions. Zones that are often relatively safe likely won't be for the near future, such as the Birthday Bowls, the Backyard, or Indicator Hill. The same might also apply to the North Country zone on Rodeo Ridge. </p>
Weather station data verified with 12" of snow (give or take) on the ground with pretty low density powder. There seemed to be a couple more inches below about 7200ft, and a couple fewer inches in the middle elevation band; don't have a great explanation for that. The new snow generally helped smooth out the surface, but there were still old tracks and/or wind effects visible beneath the surface in some areas (photo below). Consequently, it wasn't ideal conditions for hard charging as there were plenty of sharks in the right (wrong?) locations, whether stumps, logs, or old tracks.