Observation Date
12/26/2020
Observer Name
Denver and Ben
Region
Ogden » Ben Lomond » Cutler Ridge
Location Name or Route
Cutler Ridge
Comments
Today started out wet and warm, by the end of the day, we could definitely feel the cold front coming in. There was notable cracking and whumpfing in the skin track along with evidence of wind transport. Hasty hand pits along the ski trail exposed the buried facets in many locations as well as some firmer layers that were more variable due to wind/sun exposure. We dug a pit on a north aspect at 7,800 ft of elevation with a total snow depth of 90cm. There were multiple layers of concern sandwiched between crusts as seen in the attached photo. A CT test resulted in CT 2 that popped into the pit when it failed on the the near surface facets that formed after Thanksgiving. Surprisingly on the ECT, while we did get collapsing, there wasn't propagation as we had expected the with amount of energy witnessed when the CT failed. I suspect this is because the one finger slab on top was too stiff. See photos below.


Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable