Ad
The National Forest Service Logo
icon-add Observation
Forecasts
Logan Ogden Salt Lake Provo Uintas Skyline Moab Abajos Weather Archives How to read the forecast
Observations & Avalanches
Submit Observation Observations Explorer All Observations Avalanches Fatalities Weather Place Names Map Archives
Education
Avalanche Class List UAC Class List Online Classes Resources and Tutorials Avalanche Awareness Develop Skills
Events
Store
About
Contact Who we are Core Values Staff Board of Directors Past Forecasters Sponsors Annual Reports Sign In
Blog
icon-add Observation
Donate / Join

Observation: Cutler Ridge

Observation Date
12/29/2021
Observer Name
Derek DeBruin
Region
Ogden » Ben Lomond » Cutler Ridge
Location Name or Route
Ben Lomond; Cutler Ridge
Weather
Weather Comments
Temps at the trailhead at 0900 felt pretty pleasant compared to yesterday (20211228) and were around the upper teens F. Skies were overcast with flurries starting before the 10 o'clock hour and continuing on and off. Cloud layer was around 9000ft or so, lowering throughout our tour to about 8300ft. However, the main event was wind. Winds were light with occasional moderate gusts from the SW at the low elevations. Winds picked up in earnest by 7000ft and were consistently moderate. By 7500ft winds were quite strong. We maxed out our elevation at 8000ft where winds were strong enough to push us around while standing on our skis. Winds were dominantly out of the southwest, but at low elevations at the end of our tour (around 1pm) winds seemed to be coming out of the east (which I'm assuming was due to local geographic influence, but don't really know).
Snow Characteristics
Snow Characteristics Comments
Surface conditions were similar to yesterday with a couple notable exceptions: 1. We picked up every bit of an inch of fresh mid-density snow! 2. Above 7500ft or so, the new snow was often blown away completely, revealing the underlying rock hard wind slab. However, where the snow remained, it had been blown into a 2" wind skin that was quite touchy and very poorly bonded to the hard layer beneath.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Red Flags Comments
The big red flag today was wind. However, I think the more important concern will be the wind effects in combination with any new snow. The touchy wind skin noted above will be sitting beneath tonight's new snow, which I think could lead to pretty reactive storm slabs. Consequently, I'm interested to see how the PWL handles the anticipated load in the next 36 hours or so, but I would also definitely have storm/wind slabs top of mind. On the plus side, the wind is mostly in the "normal" direction on Cutler (south to north, or looker's left to right while heading uphill). But, the wind was reaching down to the trailhead, so I expect the Birthday Bowls and similar low elevation terrain to feature wind effects. One more bit of good news for stability was better looking conditons at the bottom of the snowpack in protected/treed northerly terrain below 7800ft for so. I found 50-60cm of snow with only a couple cm of basal facets; they were small (<=1mm) and not super angular, which points in the right direction once things really fill in well enough to ride that terrain.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates