Observation: Silver Fork

Observation Date
12/25/2019
Observer Name
T Diegel, P Diegel, Patterson
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver Fork
Location Name or Route
Emmas - near Grizz - and Silver Fork
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Weather Comments
Almost no wind, and seemed like the storm came in with no wind, so no slabbage.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
12"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
The new snow seemed to bond pretty well to the southerly crusted aspects, and as noted above there was no slab development so we felt comfy skinning up avy paths on the south facing side. There was some sloughing on steeper rolls and we had one little terrain trappy thing where it piled up a bit after a mid-run ski cut. On the north facing side it was similar, though without the crust, and the new snow again seemed to have a decent bond to the old snow surface. The sloughing seemed to be an inter-storm layer; at one steep north facing roll we had a crown-lette that was about 6", against a new snow total of about a foot. All very manageable. No whoomphs.
We slid into the E Bowl of Silver from the side and had a little sluffing. We also saw some folks drop into E Bowl from the tippy top, over convexities in thin, rocky, steep NW facing terrain and all they got were also sluffs.
The new snow seemed to be light enough in terms of both density and amount that it wasn't close to overloading the snowpack's PWL on high north facing. Is that thing "gone" yet? I might be bold enough to say yes given what we saw today....but I'm not a forecaster!
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate