Observation: Ogden Mountains

I had a look at lots of terrain yesterday and did not see much evidence of recent avalanche activity. The danger is Low and avalanches remain unlikely. I dug down into the snow a few times in north facing terrain looking for sugary faceted snow, and I found some. At lower elevations the faceted snow near the ground is damp and the grains are rounding and the pwl gaining strength. I tried stability tests in a couple places and did not get any failures on the suspect layer.

I did find dry and loose faceted snow at upper elevations where the snow is shallow and rocks and grass sticking out of the snow surface in places. At one point, I broke through the surface crusts into sugary snow with my skis on, and I could easily poke my pole to the ground in less than two feet of loose, sugary snow.

snow surface was damp, even at upper elevations