Snowpack

Observation: Little Cottonwood Canyon

Gagne/Pease/FreySalt Lake
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Quick report

Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure

Weak, faceted snow down at the ground will continue to be an issue for some time. For now, I am avoiding avalanche terrain on mid and upper elevation aspects facing northwest, through north, and east. Pretty simple. Fortunately, the decent early-December coverage is providing riding options on other aspects that do not have this poor structure.

Snowpack

Instability Comment
<p>Dug one pit on NE aspect at 10,000'. Got all the information we needed: CT12/Q1 ECTP15. Failing down 85 cms in weak faceted snow down at the ground. We also got a large collapse on the same slope.</p> <p> </p> <p>Photo and video of poor snowpack structure showing strong snow over weak snow.</p>

Very dense new snow. Well-bonded to old snow surface. New snow unreactive to stability tests.