Obs-Snow Profile: Park City Ridgeline 4/9/2011

Observer Name:

mark white / kobernik

Region:

Park City Ridgeline
Salt Lake

Observation Date:

04/09/2011

Location or Route:

Monitors

Weather

Sky:

Overcast

Precipitation:

Moderate Snowfall

Wind Direction:

Southwest

Wind Speed:

Moderate

Weather Comments:

Ever changing weather all day. On the way up Big Cottonwood was seeing sun breaking through the clouds and snow, wondered if we would get any skiing in before it all went off. Still pretty warm on the hike up until we reach the more exposed upper ridge line in Willow, then the wind started blowing from the SW and it started to snow moderately Once we reached the top of West Monitor wind was blowing quite strong and it was cold, kind of the pattern all day, periods of heavy snow and grauplel with strong winds then periods of no wind or precipitation. Green housing noted later in the day.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth:

15"

New Snow Density:

Medium

Snow Surface Conditions:

Powder

Dense Loose

Damp

Snow Characteristic Comments:

Route today was West Monitor, West facing Willow, South Monitor, South facing Willow. First run in West Monitor consisted of about 15 inches of light density snow on a spongy base, Cornice kick produced no results, biggest hazard in West Monitor was hitting a frozen clinker hidden under the new snow at the bottom of the hill. Skied W facing in Willow next due to no vis in South Monitor. The west skied quite well probably the deepest snow of the day. Upon entering South Monitor got a small shooting crack in the upper some what wind slabbed top but seemed to be confined to the upper few turns. Snow was a little denser in South Monitor, Skied a little more easterly aspect. Exiting out S facing Willow around 3:30 snow was damp but still skied all right, snow at the lower elevations was full on mank. Through in a few pics of the monster cornices in West Monitor, pretty impressive.

Elevation:

9100'

Aspect:

North

Slope Angle:

snow_profile_location:

United States

40° 37' 57.3024" N, 111° 35' 20.994" W

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

Kobernik Comments:
The snowpit photo/diagram was of the first place we looked at the snow for the day. It was just on the way into Willow. The snow was all right side up from last week's warm up to now. There were a few heat crusts from mid week. No significant shears were present. This profile was pretty typical for the northerly terrain we were in today. One thing to note, as Mark did, was that along the upper elevation ridges there was a little slab formation from the mornings winds. We were able to crack out shallow drifts that didn't pose much threat.

Ev's forecast was pretty much right on with an overall Moderate danger. The weather didn't really know what it was going to do next and it felt as if it could start intense snowfall or start intense heating at any given moment which would've ratcheted the danger up quick to the Considerable range.

Snow Profile Location

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