Observation Date
2/9/2017
Observer Name
T Diegel
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork
Location Name or Route
Mid Days Fork; Peggy Days?
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Rain
Wind Direction
West
Weather Comments
Not news to anyone that the weather is weird. Still pretty windy, and it seemed like it was greenhousing due to the cloud cover.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
High
Snow Surface Conditions
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments
Below 8500 it was gooey to the point of barely able to slide on skis (as a friend pointed out: "good ACL-tearing snow"), but above 8500 - before noon, at least - it was slide-able and decent. But with each run the goo level rose a bit higher. And on steeper rolls down low - where the avy paths roll into the drainage - impressive "pinwheels" (chunks coming out of the snow; see pic) were forming that were creating small wet slides on their own, and our traversing cuts were doing the same.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Rapid Warming
Red Flags Comments
The change from yesterday's decent powder to today's goop was dramatic, which made us be watchful, even tho we were ascending clear avy paths where they were lower angle and the goo factor lowered as we climbed. However, as we got up higher towards the Reed Benson ridge where it gets a bit steeper we then started to wonder about recent wind loading. One quick hand pit at ~9400' indicated a slab that was fairly well bonded, but at the same elevation that was down canyon and therefore closer to the top of the ridge we got a slab to come out really easily, so we bailed before venturing higher/steeper towards the ridge.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wet Snow
Problem #1 Comments
My recollection of wet slabs is that they take steeper slopes than the bullseye cold slab 38 degrees, and that seemed to bear itself out today. As we went over the kinda mandatory 40ish roll to reach the super-warm gooey bottom of the Day's drainage we kept to the trees and did cuts and got small slides to go; easily manageable but would be scary with more exposure.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Problem #2 Comments
Could higher elevation wind slabs go with the extra provocation of spiking air temps? could those warm temps penetrate the surface above 9k? We weren't sure of the answers and didn't want to tickle that dragon by pushing up the last steeper pitch through the sweet spot to the ridgeline, so we waxed off well below the ridge.
We were also careful to avoid the lower-elevation gullies and stay on the adjacent ribs; this is good terrain-trap-issue conditions.
I don't think that buried surface hoar will be present with the next storm; wind and rain took care of any hoar development!
with continued high temps and precip could there possibly be a natural cycle on Friday? The layering isn't necessarily conducive to that, but it's such weird conditions.....
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
High
