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Observation: Snake Creek

Observation Date
2/4/2020
Observer Name
Tim Matthews Eric Porter
Region
Salt Lake » Snake Creek
Location Name or Route
Snake Creek
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
The sunny skies and light winds sure made the cold temps feel warmer than they were.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
1"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
What a wild storm. Dumps in the valley. Snowbird reports 17" in the past 48 hrs, and upper Snake Creek had a solid inch. Wet activity noted from the previous sunny and warm days on South aspects, but not enough new snow to cover the small roller balls. There is quite a lot of surface snow variety out there in the terrain we visited.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Wind loading in this zone was very isolated to specific terrain features. In a few places we were able to locate drifts as deep as 18", but they were few and far between, and quite soft. No cracking or collapsing noted. I've listed the structure as poor because the bottom 37cm showed 1mm faceted grains that are rounding out, and although, I think they would be non reactive in tests. We ran out of time and did not perform a DT or PST. In a much shallower snowpack these facets near the ground could be much larger and more reactive under load.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
Kept and eye out for loose dry and storm slab avalanches, but in today's terrain we maxed out at about an inch of low density storm snow. Did not note any avalanche activity today withing the new snow. The snow we skied was mostly dense loose creamy pow that was not sluffing out.
Snow Profile
Aspect
Northeast
Elevation
9,500'
Slope Angle
31°
Comments
Our snowpit today was deep, but it gave us a good baseline on was the snow looks like near the ground moving towards spring. Our objectives today were more educational than to ski pow. And with the 1" of new we didn't miss anything special. Our goal was to complete an entire pit profile with all the tests thrown in there. We ran out of time after our CT result and did not confirm it, but based on it and the approaching warmer and wetter storm I am wondering if we will see storm slab avalanches at the density inversion from yesterday's low density snow. Maybe not in Snake Creek where there was very little new snow, but in areas that received more. As you can see from our pit profile the upper snowpack has a strong enough temperature gradient to drive the faceted process near the surface, but I am hoping that is short lived with the approaching storm and warmer temps.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low
Coordinates