Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Rapid Warming, Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>The warming wasn't as bad as I thought...but I did go up high enough to mitigate much of the really low snowpack and associated structure. With the slides over the last few days it should be on your mind, as well as the overall low snowpack. I don't think the bottom 10 cm of facets on any N facing aspects will round out very soon, which makes it a tricky persistent slab problem: the likelyhood of triggering anything is very, very low at this point but at some point someone won't be as lucky as anyone caught in a slide this year has been to just ski away. I don't like the probability personally. </p>
Multiple roller balls below rocky terrain.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>Pictures below of point slides below rocks. These are East facing and the only ones I saw appeared to be directly below any rock outcroppings. I did notice some large roller balls while riding out at elevations below 9000' that could have knocked me off balance (I rode out around 2 in the afternoon). </p> <p>As the snow is better on N facing higher elevations it would be good to note that this is still at a lower snowpack total than normal and often more rocky in the alpine areas of the Wasatch. Especially with the heat I think the slick bases on most of the BCC ridgeline will have water running at the base faster than normal...Bonkers area and anything with that weak interface will be suspect this year unless it turns cold and starts dumping snow. </p>
Damp/slushy on pretty much all aspects until about 9000' except in the trees which had a crust layer. E through W above that was softening, appears it could form a 'corn' cycle in the next week if the nighttime temps hold below freezing. N facing held some excellent dense loose snow, unfortunately until/if the snowpack builds I don't really trust that the persistent problem has gone away. Too shallow.