Observation: Salt Lake

Observation Date

12/7/2012

Observer Name

Peter Earle

Region

Salt Lake

Location Name or Route

Silver Fork

Weather

Sky

Broken

Wind Direction

Northwest

Wind Speed

Moderate

Weather Comments

Wind was gusty at times and the few inches of new snow were being blown around

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth

New Snow Density

Low

Snow Surface Conditions

Powder

Wind Crust

Rain-Rime Crust

Snow Characteristics Comments

Southern exposures had a challenging breakable (but occasionally supportable) crust, northern aspects were skiing well out of the wind, but wind affected slopes had some wind buff to bust through.

Red Flags

Wind Loading

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

Not a ton of snow available for transport, but the wind was trying to blow some around and was forming moderately dense slabs in leeward zones. Snowpack structure discussed below.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Persistent Weak Layer

Trend

Same

Problem #1 Comments

Did not encounter any active wind slabs today, but imagine there might be a few new pockets in the highest terrain and some old lingering pockets might be stubbornly released in the same areas

Avalanche Problem #2

Problem

New Snow

Trend

Same

Problem #2 Comments

Found stronger snow today than expected, the now buried NSF layer was much less reactive in the upper cottonwoods than on the PC ridgeline a few days ago, but there was a nice groupel sandwich between two crusts in addition to the buried NSF. Hopefully these small storm will help layer thinning and sinter some of these layers together, but a big storm could certainly get things going, and there's some large groupel grains that will hang around for a while.

Coordinates

Observation: Salt Lake

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