Observation: Willows

Observation Date

1/3/2013

Observer Name

Dave Kelly

Region

Salt Lake

Location Name or Route

Willows

Weather

Sky

Clear

Wind Speed

Calm

Weather Comments

Calm winds, sunny skies. Inverted temperatures.

Snow Characteristics

Snow Surface Conditions

Faceted Loose

Snow Characteristics Comments

Still obvious signs of surface hoar and faceted crystals on the snow surface. Some minor cracking in wind loaded areas from yesterday. I did not notice anything deeper than a couple of inches on more south easterly facing aspects. There was some warming going on at lower elevation southerly facing slopes.

Red Flags

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

There was a layer 68cm off the ground that was tough to distinguish in the pit wall. It was not reactive at all to Compression Tests and only responded to shovel shears with a signifigant amount of force. What was most interesting about this layer was that when it fractured it broke very cleanly (Q1) on small faceted crystals. I was able to repeat this twice with the back of the column fully cut, once with the back of the column not cut, and not at all with an extended column without the back cut. I have seen this layer in other pits this season at about the same height in the snowpack. However, it appears to be somewhat variable as to where it appears and hasn't been destroyed by either wind, sun, or skier traffic.

Observation: Willows

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