Obs-Snow Profile: Georges Bowl 11/19/2011

Observer Name:

Patrick Fink

Region:

Georges Bowl
Cardiff Fork
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Salt Lake

Observation Date:

11/19/2011

Location or Route:

Mill D South

Weather

Sky:

Broken

Wind Speed:

Calm

Weather Comments:

Progressive clearing during the morning. Dead calm near the ridgetop.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth:

11"

New Snow Density:

Medium

Snow Surface Conditions:

Powder

Snow Characteristic Comments:

New snow made for great riding-- just enough density to keep the p-tex off the rocks. Hand pits on the track up showed spotty old-snow coverage below about 8500'. New snow seemed in hand pits to be reasonably well bonded to the old snow. Didn't respond to slope cuts. When hand pits failed, they failed @ ground.

Red Flags

Heavy Snowfall

Red Flag Comments:

First day of the season that I didn't hear a collapse.

Primary Concern

Primary Concern:

Persistent Slabs

Probability:

Moderate

Aspect:

Northeast

East

Elevation:

High

Trend:

Less Dangerous

Primary Concern Comments:

Given pit results (see below), the lingering possibility of failure near the ground or at the facets mid-pack remains my biggest concern. The mid-pack facets failed in a more progressive manner, and didn't propagate easily/at all, but were easier to affect. The facets near the ground were harder to affect, but would propagate across the full column in a very clean planar fracture.

Secondary Concern

Secondary Concern:

None

Secondary Concern Comments:

Saw little sign of wind loading today on easterly aspects 8000-9500'. It was in the forecast, but no dice.

Elevation:

9900'

Aspect:

Northeast

East

Slope Angle:

snow_profile_location:

United States

40° 36' 45.6408" N, 111° 40' 0.012" W

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

The crust isn't shown in this photo, but is immediately above the upper facets.

Observed Danger Rating:

Moderate

Forecast Danger Rating:

Moderate

Snow Profile Location

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