Quick report
- Red Flags
- Wind Loading, Cracking
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>I think the red flag issues will be along the higher terrain like the Bald Mt. area. If there is any wind around the Uintas seem to have it along with the related wind loading problems. </p>
1. The west and northwest winds have really worked over the snow surface in the Bald Mt. area. 2. The overall snow coverage looks fairly ok on this north side of Bald Mt., but it would be a better winter if most of these rocks were covered.
Poking around on this small test slope I was finding this shallow hard wind slab that is siting on a graupel layer that happened yesterday when the front moved through. I would suspect some of these wind slabs to be deeper and not so manageable up along the high ridgelines and bigger open bowls. I felt a moderate hazard for this issue, but in select terrain and a low hazard elsewhere.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>I was finding shallow, but a rather hard wind slab that was reactive today with the weight of a person. This wind slab is sitting on top of a grauple layer that developed from yesterday's warm front that passed through the area. With the sustained winds the last two days some of these hard wind slabs are likely deeper and not so manageable if a person is riding in the higher terrain. </p>
It looked like about 2-3" of new snow from yesterday's front that moved through. The trail conditions this morning were quite hard, but things did soften some throughout the day. Up around the Bald Mt. area, the wind has been working over the snow surface creating some rough textured snow and some pockety wind slab looking conditions.