Snowpack

Observation: Salt Lake

Williams / PekarekSalt Lake
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Quick report

Aspect
South
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches, Wind Loading, Poor Snowpack Structure
Elevation
2835 m

Snowpack

Instability Comment
<p>~32 degree test slope at about 8,500 feet by Blue Bunny: new snow was adhering well to the old snow surface.</p> <p> </p> <p>Dug a quick and shallow pit at 9,300 feet on a south-facing, ~20 degree slope that was representative of what we were hoping to ski. It looked like a layer cake (photo 1: ~10 inches of soft storm snow, crust, snow, crust, etc. with some faceting snow adjacent to each of the crusts - see photo 2). Right side up overall but the crusts just kept coming, and the third crust down was knife hardness.</p> <p> Burped the shovel and performed an ECT: new snow was reactive but not cohesive, so we decided to ski it one at a time right around 30, spotting one another from islands of safety. We didn't see any avalanche activity, and the snow was great but variable.</p> <p>Winds were mostly out of the southeast during our tour (5:30-8 pm), and we saw plenty of snow getting transported towards and over the ridgeline (the skinner got entirely filled in while we dug our pit).</p>