Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
The dividing line is the Tibble Fork Road south. South of the road, the Provo snowpack is a joke all the way to Sundance. Here, it's 100 cm (3 feet) of faceted snow. The snowpack might be a little deeper and stronger in the upper elevations, but it's impossible to work your way up into upper-elevation bowls at the moment. This area is the weakest and shallowest snow I've seen this season. Provo is not in. We will see what happens over the next month. But we need feet and feet of snow here. The photos below are basic coverage.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p><strong>WDS:</strong> The most dangerous avalanche problem in the Provo mountains is where the wind has drifted a more dense slab over our old pre-existing snow surface that was weak and faceted. This layer was buried on the 31st. Outside of the wind, there are 6-10 inches of dense wet snow over weak faceted snow to the ground. Sundance Avalanche office did trigger a size two wind slab that failed on faceted snow in one of their upper starting zones (see pic 1,2 & 3). This problem will not disappear overnight, especially with more wind in the forecast. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>PWL:</strong> The two persistent weak layers have not gone anywhere. The snow surface that was buried on January 31st is the biggest concern at the moment. However, it takes an area that is wind-loaded to make an avalanche. There is NOT enough weight at the moment for the depth hoar to avalanche unless there was a larger cornice or avalanches, that makes it step down. </p> <p> </p> <p>So, it's hard to say if the biggest problem is a new PWL or WDS breaking down to the old faceted snow surface. In either case, avalanches can be remotely triggered and break over wide areas (if wind-loaded). </p> <p>There are lots of wet-loose avalanches all across the low and mid-elevation terrain. Most of these sluffs would start in the dense new heavy snow and then gouge down into the bottomless facets, making decent-sized debris piles. No cracking or collapses were noted. We did not see anything larger than size 1. Everywhere we traveled (up to 7,600') was wet snow. My guess would be around 8,500' and above the snow would be dry. Sundance skied great. Just like a spring April day at 1 PM. </p> <p> </p>
Pick a word... Warm, wet, heavy, sticky, rain, water, glop, mank, slush, unsupportable, Velcro, Pacific Northwest, mashed potatoes, elephant snot, chunder, chowder, April.