New Snow

Same

New snow was touchier than expected. In addition to observing debris from several class 1 and class 2 natural avalanches on W/NW aspects at about 9000', I was also able to easily trigger slides ski cutting steeper aspects. These were new snow only and were failing at the new snow/old snow interface. These were F-hard soft slabs up to 35 cms thick. At 8 am on one shady, wind-sheltered slope at about 8800' I was able to trigger soft slabs that were failing on some faceted snow sitting atop a rain/temperature crust. At about 9 am on a north aspect at 9500' I ski cut a steep slope which propagated approximately 8-10 meters (25-30') and ran 50 meters down to flats. The new snow was sitting on an old wind slab. I could not accurately identify the weak layer apart from a poor bond between the new snow and the dense wind slab. I saved the rest of the slope for when we were returning from our tour and unsurprisingly the same slope was alot less sensitive to a ski cut 3 hours later (at noon.) Am suspecting the trend will be the same or increasing with new snow in the forecast. Despite a poor underlaying snow structure, all natural activity as well as skier initiated slides were in new snow only.

New Snow

My touring so far this season has either been in upper Little Cottonwood or in Silver Fork, so this was my first tour in Millcreek. Clearly a different snowpack than what I have been finding in upper LCC. Highest point today was 9500' and snow depths are about 60-75 cms (2' - 2.5') Several rain crusts with well-developed facets between them are the biggest concern. What I saw today corroborated findings this week of the weakest snow between 8500' and 9500'. Not enough of a load of new and/or wind deposited snow in the drainages where I was traveling today to overload these weaker layers.