Observation: West Desolation Ridge

Observation Date

2/11/2026

Observer Name

Torrey & Collett

Region

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mill D North » West Desolation Ridge

Location Name or Route

West Willow to West Deso

Weather

Sky

Overcast

Precipitation

Light Snowfall

Wind Direction

Southwest

Wind Speed

Light

Weather Comments

The rain-snow line while driving up the canyon this morning was right around 7500 feet. We found 4-6 inches of moist snow and graupel. Precipitation was light in the morning and stopped late morning before increasing again around 4:30 PM. Wind blowing from the SW was light to moderate with some periods of stronger gusts, calling attention to large plumes of snow drifting.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth

New Snow Density

Medium

Snow Surface Conditions

Powder

Melt-Freeze Crust

Damp

Snow Characteristics Comments

Red Flags

Wind Loading

Cracking

Collapsing

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

Easy to provoke cracking within the recently wind-drifted snow lee of the ridge top. Experienced a few localized collapses in places where a thin crust, below the new snow, caps the weak facets.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Wind Drifted Snow

Trend

Increasing Danger

Problem #1 Comments

Observed easy cracking with fresh wind drifts on north aspects. Some of the drifts were up to 2 feet deep. Instabilities were confined to the immediate ridge top and tapered down-slope quickly.. These cohesive drifts were sensitive to human-triggering but lacked the volume or connectivity to run more than 10-15 feet.

Comments

On a 36-degree, east-facing slope at ~9500 feet, I found that the warm temperatures had saturated the upper snowpack and refrozen into a thick, hard crust. I did not find faceted snow here. The weakest interface was between the new snow that fell yesterday and the dense and snow from today.

On a west-facing slope near 9600 feet, we found a very concerning upper snowpack. A thin crust caps a layer of weak faceted snow. Some of the weakest snow we observed during our day.

Photos are of the associated snow pits above. Photo 1: East aspect, Photo 2: West aspect.

East

West

Today's Observed Danger Rating

Moderate

Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating

None

Coordinates

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