Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>Hasty pits continue to identify buried facets in areas traveled. Loose Dry and Loose Wet Avalanches were observed on E and SE aspects. </p>
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>In the Upper Elevation terrain this issue was not active today, though as the exit was by 14:30 it may have become more of an issue later in the day. With the sunny skies forecast for Thursday, this issue most likely will increase in danger. </p> <p> </p> <p>During the afternoon hours the potential for Wet Loose Natural activity on specific steep terrain features will be Likely. Avoidance of these issues will be quite easy to manage. </p> <p>This problem is spotty and has yet to become a significant player in the deeper areas of the upper Big Cottonwood. Despite the lack of activity, Poor Structure continues to be identified and Confidence has yet to become High in steep Likely areas where an outlier could be discovered. </p> <p> </p> <p>There were periods of Gusty winds that were hitting the Moderate category with Light to Moderate Wind Blown observed in upper elevation exposed terrain. The mild temperatures and and the dense spring like snow most likely created isolated wind slabs, and for the most part they would be stubborn in reactivity. </p>
Classic Spring weather and conditions. The intense solar, greenhousing and warm temperatures from the past two days have taken it's toll on the snow pack and riding conditions. As is typical, the only dry snow dense powder riding can be found on NW, N and NE aspects above 9300 feet on slopes with angles at least 20 degrees and greater. All other aspects had variable conditions with areas of wind crust, ambient and solar m/f crusts, and damp/wet surface snow; and the two inches of dense new snow didn't help all that much on these off aspects. On the aforementioned tight band of shady terrain, the riding was good in dry cake-like dense settled powder.
Of Concern: The warming over the last two days has produced widespread Wet Loose activity that has left dangerous "Clinkers" scattered below all the steep slopes, with the West, South and Southwest the worst.