Observation: Chicken Sh#! Ridge

Observation Date

2/22/2026

Observer Name

Hardesty and Maushund

Region

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork » Chicken Sh#! Ridge

Location Name or Route

Chicken Sh*t Ridge

Weather

Sky

Clear

Wind Speed

Calm

Weather Comments

Blue and calm. A few high clouds but the atmosphere could breathe. Warm.

Snow Characteristics

Snow Surface Conditions

Powder

Damp

Snow Characteristics Comments

Powder and hot powder. Excellent skiing and riding still in the sheltered terrain. Surface hoar and cracking...

Red Flags

Recent Avalanches

Cracking

Collapsing

Rapid Warming

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

We did experience three separate collapses in our outing today.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Persistent Weak Layer

Trend

Same

Problem #1 Comments

Poor structure. Boy oh boy. We went to investigate Saturday's catch and carry near the Chicken Shit Ridge (LINK HERE) but found it to be just a very small *new* snow avalanche that just happened to trip up the snowboarder in steep terrain.

We experienced collapsing on an east facing slope at roughly 9400', on a northeast facing slope at 8010, and on the hill above the Spruces parking lot at 7500'. (My wife reported collapsing today in our front yard at 7900'.(!). We were keen to look at low elevations and a profile (8010 NNE) showed a two foot thick slab consolidating toward 1F above the *fist plus - 4F minus DJL. ECTP19. Then we put stepped out of the snow profile hole to put our skis back on and experienced a large collapse.

Low (8000' and below) elevation bands on northerlies remain suspect.

Avalanche Problem #2

Problem

Wet Snow

Problem #2 Comments

Sun and heat taking its toll on the cold snow and almost easy enough to trigger wet loose in the dampened storm snow.

Today's Observed Danger Rating

Considerable

Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating

None

Coordinates

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