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Observation: Provo

Observation Date
12/29/2012
Observer Name
Kobernik-Nalli
Region
Provo
Location Name or Route
South Fork - Cascade
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
South
Wind Speed
Light
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
About as perfect as conditions get. Near surface faceting was noted on the surface. Both diurnal on all aspects early in the day and radiation-recrystalization on south and southwest aspects during the day.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
The huge new snow load on top of a questionable structure was the biggest red flag.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments

We got a good look around today in the south fork and only saw one avalanche that broke into old snow which Nalli reported yesterday DETAILS. We did some digging on north facing slopes in the 9000 foot range and actually found a better structure than anticipated. There is A LOT of new snow since xmas eve. Also, explosive testing in the area produced no results. This was my first real look into the upper elevations along Cascade and things were better than I would've thought. That said, I'll spend a little more time sniffing around getting a bigger sample size before trusting things too much.

Comments

There was a good amount of new snow avalanche activity on all aspects from during the storm in both loose snow avalanches and some smaller soft slabs. This was on of the bigger new snow only soft slab that we were able to see. You can also see a number of loose snow slides as well. This instability is old news.

Overall MODERATE avalanche danger seems appropriate down here.