Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Wind Loading, Cracking, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>It's time to back off the steep terrain and ride the lower angles slopes (less than 30°). We triggered two avalanches during our tour, and the one on the north side of the compass would have ruined your season. It's way too dangerous to ride steep terrain on the north side of the compass.</p>
Mark explains why due south might not be as touchy as other aspects. The big takeaway is that we do have faceted snow on due south. A stout crust above the weak layer allows it to be more stubborn to triggers.
Same pit location as above. We are showing an extended column test with no propagation on due south at about 9300'.
We decided to dig another snowpit on a southeast-facing slope at about 9500' in elevation. Here we were able to see propagation within our snowpit tests. We had two layers fail with full propagation. The uppermost layer failed on small-grained faceted snow, and the bottom layer (more concerning) failed underneath a thin melt-freeze crust on more well-defined faceted snow. In either case, if you are getting full propagation with your extended column test, you can trigger an avalanche. I am still a little concerned with the steep southeast-facing terrain.
Snowpack
It's about as good as I can remember for December 12th in Utah. The lower-angled terrain rode like a dream and it's truly a winter wonder land. Powder everywhere.