Quick report
- Red Flags
- Heavy Snowfall
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Visibility was not good enough to see many other slopes. I was right at cloud base and fog was rolling in and out.</p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I didn't see any signs of major slab formation, but a loose slide could move pretty fast and entrain a lot of snow, I think. And new snow breaking 45 cm deep would be significant.</p> <p>I didn't observe any effect of the wind described, but a different area affected by the described W wind or anything affected by wind overnight could result in a big and potentially destructive slab</p>
About 45 cm new wet snow poorly bonded to the old sun-baked surface. No density inversion observed. At my highest elevation, 9,700 ft, the top few cm was much lower density. No sign of wind transport observed. An isolated column failed enthusiastically at the new snow interface at 8 hand taps, Q1 shear. No cracking, collapsing, rollerball, or natural activity observed, but I stuck to 30 deg meadow skipping. The ease of and speed at which the column failed was sobering. Riding conditions were about what you'd expect with 45 cm of very wet snow, entertaining but not what makes Utah famous and deteriorated quickly with elevation.