Walked along the Park City Ridgeline from the top of 9990 to Point Peak, wanted to get a look at all the snow surfaces and the avalanches in Red Rocks and on Point Peak. The main thing to note was all the surface conditions, across the board a stout crust has been noted from Little Cottonwood to Millcreek, and the Park City Ridgeline is no exception. There is a stout crust from the rain event Friday, either on the snow surface or directly beneath dense loose snow, a few cms of graupel or a few cms of wind drifted snow. With a few cold clear nights in our future, I would be looking for some near-surface faceting to occur around that layer. I did not experience any signs of instability, such as cracking of whomping. In most areas, it seems the new snow instabilities are trending towards low.

As for the avalanches, I primarily wanted to go look at the Point Peak avalanche. There was a great observation HERE about the event, but I wanted to go see if the adjacent slopes still head propagation propensity and where this avalanche failed. When I stuck my shovel blade in the snow, on NE aspect 9200' ft on a 29-degree slope, I found the same layer noted in the observation, a 1F slab over a thin layer of facets approx 55cm down in the snowpack. You could faintly see the crust in which this layer of facets sat above in the snowpit wall before performing tests. When performing stability tests, I got a CT20 and an ECTP24 on that layer. While I think is an isolated problem, primarily on that steep Northeast/East facing terrain of the Park City ridgeline, it is something to keep in mind if you are traveling on the Park City Ridgeline in that area.

Photos:

Heavy ice on trees at ridgelines

Pit wall adjacent to the Pointy Peak Avalanche

Stability test results - ECTP24 down on the RR layer 55cm down

Point Peak Avalanche Photos