We spent the day poking around the Central Wasatch, focusing on mid-elevations to see how the warm weather and relatively lower wind and snow totals have been affecting things compared to the upper elevations. Recent observations have shown signs of instability, so we wanted to see what we could find—especially to check for preserved surface hoar like we’ve seen in the Provo area mountains.

Snow conditions are still weak across all aspects that have coverage, and travel remains pretty grim with plenty of rocks and dirt exposed, even on roads and skin tracks. The warm weather has taken its toll, leaving the upper 10 cm of the snowpack damp but not wet enough to squeeze out water. Below that, we found a mix of weak facets and preserved surface hoar in protected areas. This layer will likely become a problem once more load is added to the snowpack. In wind-sheltered terrain, preserved surface hoar sitting atop 30+ cm of weak faceted snow could make tree-line areas especially dangerous. It’s worth taking a few minutes to dig and see if you can spot the preserved surface hoar grains or the dull gray layer in the snowpack.

At 9,000 feet on a west aspect, we got an ECTP8 down 10 cm within the preserved surface hoar layer on top of the facets.

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