Bruce Tremper

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine » Red Baldy

White Pine - Red Baldy

10,800'

Northwest

40°

Natural

Persistent Weak Layer

Depth Hoar

20"

600'

1,250'

Went up White Pine to the base of the upper bowl and noticed only one large, recent avalanche on the NW face of Red Baldy that ran to the flats. It looks like it ran near the end of the last period of snow and wind, probably late last night or early this morning. It looked pretty fresh. When I was up there a few days ago I noticed that most every steep slope that face north through east had avalanched during the storm but I did not see any slides on northwest or west facing slopes. Apparently the last shot of snow and wind was enough to activate the NW face of Red Baldy. I did not go up to the crown since it it was over 1000 vertical feet above us and it was pretty obvious what it was sliding on. The slide looks like it removed most of the snow on the NW side of the mountain in a wide, large avalanche perhaps a couple hundred yards wide. On the way out, we also skied the lower aprons of Tri Chutes (NW facing), which are gentle slopes and we got many big collapses on the depth hoar near the ground. Any terrain with any hint of a northerly aspect would collapse but west and southwest did not. Quick snow profiles showed what everyone else has been finding, a very fragile layer of DH near the ground with 2-3' of 1-4 finger hard slab above. Coverage is much improved with the last shot of dense snow and wind and you're not hitting rocks much any more even on the lower road. Good news! Skiing conditions fairly good on dense, cold snow with wind affects at and above tree line.