Observation Date
1/4/2023
Observer Name
Staples & Boyer
Region
Salt Lake » Parleys Canyon
Location Name or Route
Parley's North
Comments
We dug on S, N, and E facing slopes all around 8000 feet.
- Snow depths ranged from 115 to 137 cm (3.75 ft to 4.5 ft).
- Facets from November are consistently ~ 35 cm (~1 ft) above the ground
- They produced ECTP's with 23, 27, 28 and 33 taps.
The good news is that they are on their way to healing. The bad news is that personally, I have a hard time trusting them just yet in places like this. When you are digging, the layer is very easy to feel with your shovel. The layer is easy to see in a pit wall. It also still propagates in ECTs even though it takes a lot of taps. I'm hopeful that soon we'll see ECT's that stop propagating. Technically our one test on an east facing slope was an ECTN because it took 33 hits for it to break and propagate.
Areas with over 2 meters of snow (which are many) have very strong snow. In these deep places the faceted layer has gained a lot of hardness and is basically no longer a concern.
The danger felt Moderate. Avalanches are possible (big ones) but far from likely. This doesn't mean I'm totally ready to step out into avalanche terrain. Areas like this with less than 1.5 meters of snow are a bit more suspect for me, and a possible chance of triggering a large, hard slab avalanche is still not good enough.
Hard to beat the weather, snow cover, and the snow.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates