Obs-Snow Profile: Chablis 1/12/2011

Observer Name:

craigpatterson

Observation Date:

01/12/2011

Region:

Provo
Provo Canyon
Chablis

Location or Route:

Chablis Ridge-bunny cliffs

Weather

Sky:

Broken

Wind Direction:

Southwest

Wind Speed:

Moderate

Snow Characteristics

Snow Surface Conditions:

Wind Crust

Melt-Freeze Crust

Red Flags

Cracking

Collapsing

Primary Concern

Primary Concern:

Persistent Slabs

Probability:

Moderate

Aspect:

North

Northeast

East

Elevation:

Mid

Primary Concern Comments:

Sensitive wind slabs have formed over the last couple of days with the Moderate winds out of the SSW. The SH event of Jan. 6th and Jan. 7th is now buried by the small windless storm from Jan. 9th and the subsequent winds. Of concern is the fact that we now have another SH event that could plague the area similar to last years Feb. 10th and Feb. 16th SH layers. This years layer is sitting on a fairly firm bed surface that is 1F hard and is now capped by a 1F+ to P hard wind slab.

Elevation:

9700'

Aspect:

North

Northeast

Slope Angle:

snow_profile_location:

United States

40° 22' 10.6752" N, 111° 36' 42.876" W

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

The snow profile above didn't reveal what I was expecting to see: more SH. What it did show was that there was a P hard wind slab sitting on top of a layer of NSF's that formed in the Provo area on 1/8 and also a layer that formed on 1/5. The 1/5 layer was more advanced and thus the layer of primary concern. Test results were CTE 4 Q2 and ECTP2 Q1 on the 1/5 layer of NSF's. Have heard reports of SH observed up to 9500' in the Provo area, but not above. Possible that the humid air mass didn't exist above ~9500' on 1/6 and 1/7?

Observed Danger Rating:

Moderate

Forecast Danger Rating:

Moderate

Snow Profile Location

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