Observation: Uintas 12/15/2011

Observer Name:

Ted Scroggin

Region:

Uintas

Observation Date:

12/15/2011

Location or Route:

Mill Creek Drainage

Weather

Sky:

Few

Wind Direction:

Southwest

Wind Speed:

Calm

Weather Comments:

Cold and clear this morning with increasing clouds in the afternoon. Very light winds and about 5" new snow in the upper elevations.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth:

New Snow Density:

Low

Snow Surface Conditions:

Powder

Dense Loose

Wind Crust

Snow Characteristic Comments:

It was nice to see some new snow, although the light density snow did little to cover the rocks.

Primary Concern

Primary Concern:

None

Primary Concern Comments:

Still pretty quiet around the Uintas, the low probability of finding and triggering one of these small wind slabs throughout the range is still possible. They are confined to the higher terrain and the riding conditions to get into these areas is thin and difficult.

snow_profile_location:

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

This slide was not reported to us until yesterday by people who were in the area last Thursday. Today I went to take a look and would guess that it was human triggered based on the sled tracks going in and out of the slide.

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

I would classify the slide as HS-AM-R2-150'x200'x12"-2.5'. This was not a big slide, but some of the chunks were big and hard enough to knock a person off their machine. I would imagine that it was triggered from low on the slope were the slab was thinner and once the weak snow collpased it propagated up where the slab was much thicker.

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 3)

This terrain feature will often slide both naturally and with human triggers. There is a nice open area above the slope where winds being channeled through the terain will load this slope.

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 4)

The crown depth went from 12" to 2.5'. It's possible the bed surface was a hard slick wind crust when the strong east winds a couple of weeks back stripped this north/east aspect?

Observed Danger Rating:

Low

Forecast Danger Rating:

Low