Quick report
- Red Flags
- Recent Avalanches, Rapid Warming
Today, we ventured out in to the Provo area mountains in search of good views and to explore some gentle terrain. We had a feeling temps would saturate the snow, but took a chance and enjoyed a nice long walk and witnessed the aftermath of an impressive avalanche cycle. We saw numerous soft slab avalanches that occurred naturally during the Jan 29-30th storm cycle that ranged from D2-D3 failing on the new snow/old snow interface as well as deeper into likely the DFL in areas. This being my first real jaunt out of the Central Wasatch this season I wasn't surprised to see large avalanches in this area, but that they seemed to be predominantly on southerly aspects (SE & SW) and we didn't observe many 'large' avalanches on the more northerly parts of the compass.That being said we did see some "smaller" D2 avalanches that were more pockety in northerly terrain.
Photo 1: Extensive natural avalanche cycle on the east side of Box Elder Peak. A lot of aspects and elevations represented here.
Photo 2: SS-N-D2 about 100ft wide on a S aspect below Red Baldy's "Moonraker"
Photo 3: SS-N-D2-12" about 150 ft wide on a SW aspect in Major Evans (just above the perfect cabin)
Photo 4: SS-N-D3- 12"-36"and about 1500ft between the two avalanches. S, SE, E aspects running 1000ft in Silver Spur
Photo 5: Cinnamon Rolls for dessert on our exit
I attached a video link looking at both the Major Evans and Silver Spur avalanches.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p> Another big load on some weak snow. The wind and new snow easily tipped the scales in the Provo area mountains. </p>
As the clock struck closer to noon and the temps increased at 9k, the snow started to become damp and the skin glopping got pretty real deal. But we forged on.