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Observation: Big Cottonwood Canyon

Observation Date
1/31/2016
Observer Name
T Diegel
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon
Location Name or Route
Big Cottonwood
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Weather Comments
a little sun early but it was mercifully clouded over before the s. facing got cooked.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

between 8 and 9k in BCC it seemed like there was more 8-10" vs the 14-ish that was reported in LCC? The rain crust was felt on north aspects down at 7500, but there were no steep slopes around and we didn't test stability of that. There was easy sluffing of the top few inches on 35+ degree slopes, but there didn't seem to be any slabs. There were slopes available to tickle the white dragon (ridgetop, corniced, windloaded, 38 degrees) but we didn't do so.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Red Flags Comments
there was some high PI yesterday, but not as high as we've seen a couple of times in the past 10 days, and it didn't seem like things reacted as much given that slightly-lower intensity.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Problem #1 Comments

given the complex nature of the 'pack any additional load is suspect, but it seemed like yesterday's 8-10" wasn't enough (??) to generate action? Again, we didn't try and kept our slope angles down on both south and north facing, but we didn't see any of the natural activity typically associated with "considerable" danger.

Comments

will another 5-10" be the bridge or the break point? probably depends on the wind.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate