Obs-Snow Profile: Canyons side country 12/31/2010

Observer Name:

Michael Janulaitis

Region:

Salt Lake
Park City Ridgeline
Canyons side country

Observation Date:

12/31/2010

Location or Route:

The Canyons side country

Weather

Sky:

Overcast

Precipitation:

Light Snowfall

Wind Direction:

Southwest

Wind Speed:

Light

Weather Comments:

Some moderate wind on the ridgeline but otherwise cold and calm. Light snowfall and some sun...not enought to mess up the SE aspects.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth:

20"

New Snow Density:

Low

Snow Surface Conditions:

Powder

Snow Characteristic Comments:

Greatest snow on Earth. Don't really see how it could get much better. Lightly wind loaded on ridgelines.

Red Flags

Red Flag Comments:

None. Snow is covering rocks that I've never seen covered. Very deep and solid snowpack.

Primary Concern

Primary Concern:

New Snow

Probability:

Considerable

Aspect:

North

Northeast

East

Southeast

Northwest

Elevation:

High

Mid

Trend:

Less Dangerous

Primary Concern Comments:

Surface snow was easy to sluff. If trying to enjoy the powder you might get cautght by your own sluff. Ski fast.

Secondary Concern

Secondary Concern:

Deep Slabs

Probability:

Moderate

Aspect:

North

Northeast

East

Southeast

Northwest

Elevation:

High

Mid

Trend:

Same

Secondary Concern Comments:

Deep slabs were a concern but with the cold temps we felt the last weeks wet snow was now frozen..

Elevation:

9700'

Aspect:

East

Slope Angle:

snow_profile_location:

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

This is a shot of a line I've looked at for years. Finally I was able to ski it today without hitting bottom. This is the SE aspect off the nose of Sound of Music (PC ridgeline). It sluffed on the rollerover as we skied down. The sluffs were slow and managemable.

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

We skied Cinder Chutes earlier in the day triggered a big enough sluff that my partner, Scott, got slapped in the back of the legs by his own sluff. Something we both noticed today with the cold smoke snow was the difficulty, as a spotter, to identify the sluffs as they happened. In both cases, Cinder Chutes and the later Sound of Music, we were unable to differencitate the sluff from snow kicking up from our skis. When digging on the SE approach to Cinder Chutes, I dug an isolated column and was able to get the top snow, 4 inches or so, to fail with my fingers...maybe CT 3...not sure. After a shovel sheer test I was able to pick up and hold the top 80 cm of snow minus about 20cm that previously failed with my compression test, in my hands.

Observed Danger Rating:

Moderate