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Observation: Raymond Slabs

Observation Date
3/9/2017
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » Porter Fork » Raymond Slabs
Location Name or Route
Raymond Slabs
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Warm today with a few high clouds and light winds from the SW.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Boot deep powder on the wind protected N facing, Dense loose mixed in with some wind crust on the high wind exposed aspects and either a melt-freeze crust or damp snow on W,SW,S,SE and E depending on time of day. Lower elevations were damp on all aspects.

Comments

Walked to the back of the Raymond Slabs from Porter Fork in search of dry N facing wind protected snow. Every thing was crusted in the morning up to about 7000ft, Above that the snow on the E and W aspects got damp fairly fast and were saturated by 2:00pm. The clouds and the cooler temps seemed to keep wet activity in check yesterday but with full sun and warmer temperatures the wet activity was going off on the E,W, and S. Many point releases and wet slides were observed in Upper Porter Fork and they were fanning out quite wide and leaving fairly large debris piles. Skin wax is highly recommended if you don"t want to be walking with a extra 30 pounds on both feet. There was still some wind slabs that would crack out but even in the steepest terrain they would not move. I would say heat related activity is the main avalanche problem for the next few days, especially in steep and confined terrain.

Photos: wet activity on the rise today, old debris from a dry avalanche probably happened Monday, still dry snow on high north even though its a bit winded

Moderate seems like the right call for wet activity in the afternoon tomorrow.

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