Quick report
- Aspect
- North
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3109 m
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>This will only become a concern when we start to see more snow stack up.</p>
I prowled around Ephraim Canyon this weekend looking at snow conditions. North facing slopes are holding about a foot of snow. Some of these slopes are harboring very weak sugary "faceted" snow. In particular, The Monster. This is a steep north facing slope that is very popular with sledders early in the season because it is smooth and void of rocks, stumps and downed trees. Usually it gets hit so hard and so early in the season that the compaction from all of the sleds stabilizes the slope.
Because of this winter's slow start, no one has been able to ride The Monster yet. This means that the current weak snow will be buried before anyone gets there this season. This will be a bit out of the ordinary and could potentially produce avalanches on a slope that many people consider stable and on a slope where they usually don't see avalanches.
Snowpack
Only about a trace of snow fell during the minor storm Saturday night.