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Observation: Tushers

Observation Date
3/10/2013
Observer Name
Muller
Region
Southwest » Tushers
Location Name or Route
Tushar's/Delano Peak Area
Weather
Sky
Clear
Weather Comments
24 inches of snow fell between our arrival Friday afternoon, and our departure Sunday morning. This storm started with little to no wind, and then became quite windy. Today the temperatures were very warm, and small rollerballs were noted.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
2'
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments
Heavy snowfall Friday and Saturday on top of a relatively shallow snowpack for someone used to the wasatch (100 cm). On our hike in to the yurt, it was noted after penetrating through a stout melt-freeze crust, it was damp facets to the ground. With this being the case, I expected that a load of this amount would contribute to much more cracking and collapsing, although we only noticed one small collapse, although a good amount of cracking.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Rapid Warming
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
We had almost everything going on, although the rapid warming took place today. The yurt we accessed had either very low angle terrain (quite hard to ski with the amount of snow received), or high angle terrain which was much more then what we wanted to jump on given the load and winds. We did not see any avalanches, although a very small test slope with a cornice drop resulted in new snow sluffing
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem #1 Comments
Winds were cranking up high, creating very slabby conditions. The storm came in with very little wind, which created a bit of a density inversion, although it was difficult to get on anything steep enough to test this hypothesis.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wet Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
Rapid warming was a significant issue today. I had this as problem 2 because even with the poor snow pack structure, it was hard to initiate anything in CT's and ECT's, and with the limited amount of cracking and collapsing we had, I do not believe this brought the persistent slab up to problem 2, except maybe in terrain where significant wind loading had occured.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None