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Observation: Park City Ridgeline

Observation Date
1/6/2023
Observer Name
Graves, Torrey
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline
Location Name or Route
Iron Mountain
Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Poor Snowpack Structure
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
Today was overcast and humid with occasional light snowfall. There were 8 inches of low-density new snow from overnight weighing just over 0.5" SWE. We didn't observe any signs of wind-loading near the 8500' ridge. The snowpack depth ranged from 1 to 1.5 meters deep with the November facet layer buried about 1m deep in most locations. The November facet layer was softer than other places in the range (F+ hard) but was moist to wet and consisted mostly of rounding facets. Stability tests produced ECTx's but following several hard hits from the shoulder was able to produce propagating results outside of the test ECTP34 @ 27cm on the November facet layer. It's amazing to see this amount of low-elevation coverage around Park City and the weak layer of facets gaining strength on these outlying slopes.
Snow Profile
Aspect
East
Elevation
7,700'
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates