Observation: Upper Weber Canyon

It was a beautiful day in the Western Uintas. Touring in Upper Weber Canyon started with very minimal snow at lower elevations, solar aspects where basically bare. Moving into the mid and upper elevations coverage on W-SE was adequate to make some turns; however, the snow was faceted though out the entire snow pack on most aspects we touched, that where not solar. The skiing was was like trying to run through knee deep water, who would have thought a few feet of dry untracked snow would be so hard! Many areas that may have had a bit of a cohesive slab have since faceted out leaving little structure. We did note he November crust around 30-40cm up from the ground that has likely contributed to the recent collapses people have been experiencing. There where some good turns here and there where the slab in the upper snow pack still existed.

Due to the loss of structure in the snowpack from faceting,avalanches may be more difficult to trigger. But the weak snow is there in full force and I would suspect it will become a much bigger problem if we add more snow on top.