Observation: Uintas 1/3/2010

Observer Name:

Doug Wewer

Region:

Uintas

Red Flags

Cracking

Collapsing

Red Flag Comments:

Sunday morning, went for a solo exploration and dug a pit at 9700', NW, 31 degrees (see pit profile). Dug pit in a fairly open "burn" glade. Was able to get a full propation (2 out of 4 tries) with 26-28 taps (ECTP, Q1). The column actually fell apart (partial propagations) on the other two tests. Failure occured on facets directly below the deteriorating crust. I poked around a lot over the weekend and felt this snowpit was consistent with the general snowpack in the area (on shady aspects). Near 10,000 feet on a more exposed subridge, a stronger (1F?) wind slab was present in the upper half of the snowpack.

I kept the slope angles below 32 degrees and skied a run in the glades. Went up for a second lap and triggered two big, tree-shaking collapse on a small 15-20 degree bench.

snow_profile_location:

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

We climbed a small subridge to 10,300 feet. We collapsed and cracked nearly every slope we walked acro

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

It was one of the more scarier ascents I've made. Even though we were on low-angled terrain, I had to keep convincing myself that we were "safe" and it wasn't steep enough to slide. I can't say I've experienced a day like this before, especially since we were out a full 24 hours since the last snowfall, the storm was small, and the wind affect was non-existent in those areas. Guess this is what it's like to ski in Colorado (or the Western Uintas...)

Comments - Photos - Videos (group 4)

The "slab" seemed "rotten" and appeared to lack the cohesiveness and energy to actually avalanche, but the cracking and collapsing contradicts this. For certain, whenever the next big storm comes, it will get very exciting in this area...