Planned Website Outage: The UAC website will be down for maintenance on June 17 from 2:00 - 7:00 PM MT.

Observation: White Baldy

Observation Date
3/3/2017
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Red Pine » White Baldy
Location Name or Route
White Baldy
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Not as hot today as yesterday, high clouds and wind keep the temperatures comfotrable. The wind was starting to damage many upper elevation slopes and blowing in the moderate range all day long.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Dense dry snow on the high N,NW and NE with some wind crust mixed in, melt-freeze crust on E,SW,SE and W, damp snow at lower elevations and on S facing slopes out of the wind.

Comments

Went to White Baldy in search of dry settled powder and figured High N was the place to find it after yesterdays hot windless day. I was thinking it was going to be even hotter today but like I said before the wind and the high clouds kept things cool in the alpine. Noted a bunch of wet activity that happened yesterday on W facing slopes at mid elevation in Red Pine Gulch, but not much on the E facing. There was quite a bit of wind damage in the high alpine, mainly on E and NE facing. Seemed like the wet activity was in the low range today but the wind was building pockets of wind slab that would sometimes crack but not move. The upper reaches of White Baldy were wind scoured or stastrugi, mostly soft settled powder on the rest of the slope with a couple pockets of wind crust. Not sure what the temperatures are going to be tomorrow but wind slabs that were formed today might be the thing to look out for tomorrow. Cracking out even a small wind slab in steep confined terrain can lead to serious problems sometimes, same goes for point releases or wet activity.

Photos: wet activity from yesterday in Red Pine Gulch, SW winds building wind crusts and wind slabs on White Baldy, high north still dry and creamy today might be a different story tomorrow if the wind continues to blow.

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