Observation: West Bowl 2/2/2012

Observer Name:

Hoskins

Region:

Salt Lake
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Silver Fork
West Bowl

Observation Date:

02/02/2012

Location or Route:

West Bowl Silver Fork

Weather

Sky:

Obscured

Precipitation:

Light Snowfall

Wind Direction:

Northwest

Wind Speed:

Light

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth:

New Snow Density:

Low

Snow Surface Conditions:

Powder

Snow Characteristic Comments:

New snow bonding well to old snow surface

Red Flags

Collapsing

Red Flag Comments:

We dug our pit in the north facing trees. The steeper slope adjacent to our pit naturally avalanched earlier in the week. When the forth skier stepped into the area the slope collapsed.

Primary Concern

Primary Concern:

Deep Slabs

Probability:

Moderate

Aspect:

North

Elevation:

High

Trend:

Same

Primary Concern Comments:

Our pit was 180 cm deep. The bottom 60 cm was old faceted snow 4F hardness. The weakest snow was at the interface between the new slab and old snow interface. This area had not avalanched since the big storm. The structure was poor. We did not bother doing stability tests, the collapsing with the obvious weaker snow beneath the slab and the natural avalanche on the adjacent slope was adequate information.

Elevation:

10200'

Aspect:

North

Slope Angle:

snow_profile_location:

United States

40° 36' 4.1328" N, 111° 38' 0.8952" W

Observed Danger Rating:

Considerable

Forecast Danger Rating:

Considerable

Snow Profile Location

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