Observation Date
12/27/2020
Observer Name
Brackelsberg / Francis
Region
Uintas » Murdock Basin
Location Name or Route
Murdock Basin
Weather Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
6"-8" of new, very light density snow sitting on top of an almost complete faceted snowpack.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Once again we had significant collapsing and cracking. As we traveled up the summer road, the road bank was cracking 30M in front of us. A few steeper road cuts sheered cleanly (see photo below for a small example). With a more dense slab, I feel we would have been able to remotely trigger many slopes.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
Staying in the flats and in the trees we avoided wind-affected terrain so our only concern today was the faceted snowpack. For the shallow and almost fully faceted snowpack, it seems like it is going to be a long time before we will be able to trust any of the areas I have seen over the past 2 days.
Comments
The video of our compression tests pretty much sums up the snowpack. As a slab develops I anticipate we will have very dangerous and tricky avalanche conditions.
Video
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates
