Quick report
- Red Flags
- Poor Snowpack Structure
- Red Flags Comment
- <p>On high cold north facing slopes the late October snow has developed into some weak faceted snow. I could not isolate a column for any stability test. This poor snowpack structure is not widespread and is isolated to steep north facing terrain. Collapsing of the new storm snow onto the weak faceted snow near the ground was also observed.</p>
Craig said it best with, "it's instant winter". Although the snow cover is still a little shallow, what a good start to the winter season. The grassy meadows and low angle slopes free of hazards offer the best riding and sliding.
Even at the 10,000' elevation the cover is still marginal, but enough snow for getting out to look around and get back into the groove.
This shallow snow pit on a north facing slope at 10,000' shows the recent storm snow with the October 23-24 storm at the bottom and how weak and sugary this snow looks. These upper elevation north facing areas will likely be places to keep a watchful eye on.
I was not able to isolate a column in this snow pit where the new snow was overloading the weak early season snow. There were cracks and a couple of good collapses as I approached this location.
Snowpack
- Instability Comment
- <p>The Uintas received a foot or more of new snow with 1.5" of water weight, mostly falling on bare ground, but the high north facing terrain had some lingering snow from the October 23-24 storm. Limited snow cover is preventing access to the steeper terrain where this avalanche concern is found.</p> <p>Winds have plenty of new snow to blow around and shallow wind slabs have formed along the ridgelines.</p>
Cold powder snow with some stiffer wind slab in those exposed wind areas.