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Observation: Ogden Mountains

Observation Date
12/3/2023
Observer Name
Derek DeBruin
Region
Ogden » Ogden Mountains
Location Name or Route
Jumpoff Canyon
Weather
Weather Comments
Overcast skies this morning with cloud layer around 5500ft. S- to S1 with some accumulation for the duration of our outing, roughly 8am to 2pm. Precip was a variety of rime forms, clusters, a bit of graupel, and generally dense. The freeze line was at/below the valley floor this morning and finally rose to about 5000ft by 130pm or so. Below that it was fully rain, sleet above, and still snow above that. Winds were generally light and variable, increasing to moderate out of the south around 11am.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Characteristics Comments
About 50-60cm of snow on the ground in the Jumpoff Canyon zone around 6200ft. Snow was upside down, progressing from 4F+ at the top to 4F- at the bottom, with little in the way of distinct layering. Hand shears were not reactive and had the entire column of snow toppling over at the ground. Precipitating snow was quite dense, and the snow on the ground was damp--took little effort to get water out of a snowball.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Heavy Snowfall
Rapid Warming
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
D1 natural wet loose avalanches occurred in the steep terrain (ca. 5000-6500ft), largely confined to gullies between rocks. We saw one set of releases that had run about 200-250ft vertical before cascading over the cliffs below. While not large (just a few feet across), the "pinwheels" were heavy and dense and it wouldn't have been pleasant to be on the receiving end of them. We also triggered numerous wet loose avalanches at our feet as we descended. Some of these were cartoonishly large. One of the snowballs I triggered traveled several hundred feet of vertical, was a bit under a meter wide and about 1.25-1.5 meters in diameter--the biggest I've ever seen. This all occurred prior to the freeze line rising to that elevation, so I imagine with the rain and melt water that we saw as we continued our descent more wet weirdness is possible overnight.
Comments
A photo of the natural wet loose avalanches. These actually originated from a gully above out of view and then continued through the rocks pictured here and continued over the cliffs just below where I took the photo.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates