Observation Date
2/17/2018
Observer Name
Travis Nauman, Reed Kennard
Region
Moab
Location Name or Route
Funnel Trees
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Beatiful bluebird with some light winds in exposed locations
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Still 3-4 inches of light stuff in areas sheltered from wind - really fun to ski. The snowpack is still thin, especially below 10,000 ft. I've been on mostly west faces the last two days and the snow stability has some weaknesses and almost everywhere has 15-30 cm of depth hoar facets. At treeline there are some scary wind slabs, and I had 6-7 very noticeable large collapses in that zone. No collapses in areas that haven't had some wind exposure tho. Overall snowpack depths on west faces above 9500 feet are 50-70 cm.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Depth hoar remains a concern across the board. A rather large avalanch on the west facing "El Pinche" and the adjacent lookers left slope continue to keep me and my cohort off of open slopes any steeper than 25 degrees in slope. Beware of areas connected to steeper slopes as well.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
With our shallow snowpack throughout the season, facets of 1.5-4 mm in diameter at the bottom of the snowpack create a looming danger of a large catastrophic failure in avalanche terrain. This is likely to take some time to diminish, the danger is probably SLOWLY decreasing for this.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
There is a lot of wind deposited snow along treeline that has poor structure. All of the collapses I've observed yesterday and today were on wind drift slaps in this zone. The danger of these is decreasing, but this next storm cycle will likely increase the risk of wind slabs breaking off again.
Snow Profile
Aspect
West
Elevation
11,200'
Slope Angle
25°
Comments
Snow pit had a couple interfaces. An old snow surface at 38 cm (from bottom) failed but didn't across on an ECT test. The facets at 25 cm failed and propogated at ECT 24 indicating that is is still down there looming, but not incredibly reacting AT THAT LOCATION. Photo cred: Reed Kennard
Lots of activity on both north and west facing aspects in Talking Mountain Cirque. I was surprised at the size of the slide(s) near El Pinche on a west aspect(observers left in photo), but the north facing Lone Pine slide is quite impressive as well. Photo cred: Reed Kennard
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates
