Quick report
- Aspect
- Southeast
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Heavy Snowfall, Collapsing, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Elevation
- 3048 m
- Slope Angle
- 28°
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>A lot of obvious red flags out there today. We know that the poor snowpack structure exists, we have been seeing recent avalanches, and we just added a huge stressor in the form of recent snowfall. Time to play it safe, and stick to low-angle terrain. </p>
Prior to this past week, the entire Wasatch was covered with weak-faceted snow. We have now added anywhere from 15-30" of new low-density snow across the entire compass. We headed out today to see what more Easterly and Southerly facing terrain looked like. In zones we were breaking trail, we were still able to get audible collapses. In other zones where we were not breaking trail, the skin tracks have seen so much traffic, those slopes had likely already collapsed.
We dug a pit at 10,000' on a southeast aspect and found weak faceted snow near the ground, but were unable to get any propagation within our pit. On most solar aspects you can find a supportable solar crust just below the new snow. This will allow the southerly-facing aspects to be a bit more stubborn, and we will likely see less activity on this layer until we get more water. The aspects that remain concerning are those lacking supportable crusts. On the side of the compass lacking the solar crust, the low and mid-elevation aspects are especially suspect right now. This is unusual and should be paid close attention to. We are seeing close calls, and near misses within these elevation bands. While they are areas people may often folk to during periods of high danger, the slope angle of these lower angles needs to be closely paid attention to.
Snowpack
Great riding conditions, 20+" of low-density snow covering almost every aspect. Winds have kept the transport at bay and left the snow surface nearly untouched. On upper-elevation ridgelines, large cornices are present but they don't seem to be actively growing.
On W/N/E facing aspects, the new snow feels rather bottomless, on the aspects that possess that solar crust you can feel it under the recent snow.
Deep trail-breaking in the flats.