Observation Date
1/8/2019
Observer Name
Travis Nauman
Region
Moab
Location Name or Route
Prelude
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Beautiful bluebird day with almost no wind. Got pretty warm on south faces and snow was getting sticky in those sunny spots.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
Fun powder day. Sunny faces started getting sticky and will be crusted tomorrow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Still have some persistent weak layers and lots of areas with wind loading. We continued to get collapses most of the day on all aspects.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
The wind has moved around a lot of snow in complicated patterns over the last two storm cycles, be aware of wind slabs even down below timberline in some areas.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
There are still a couple of sleeper layers out there. On the west face we decided to evaluate there were facets above an old sun crust and then facets below that crust.
Snow Profile
Aspect
Northwest
Elevation
11,200'
Slope Angle
22°
Comments
It is surprising how much faceted snow there was in this deep profile. The result was perhaps less reactive than I expected with all the collapsing we experienced touring. However, if you did trigger the fracture that propagated in this test, it is a big slap (59 cm) that could step down even lower in the profile. Seems like things will start to stabilize if the weather stays calm, but it might take a some time.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates
