Observation Date
1/4/2013
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas
Location Name or Route
Mill Creek
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Inverted temperatures this morning with minus 5 in Evanston and a balmy 14 degrees at the trailhead. Very light winds along the high ridgelines and a clear and beautiful day in the backcountry.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Faceted Loose
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Excellent turning and riding conditions can still be found throughout the range. The south aspects have developed a thin heat crust at lower elevations, but the higher terrain is still cold settled powder and very supportable snow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
We visited the east side of the area in the Mill Creek drainage and found a thinner snow pack, with more developed faceted snow near the ground. Our snow pit stability tests revealed weaker snow with both compression and extended column tests failing with taps from the elbow and the fracture propagating across the column. This kept our travels to lower angle slopes.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
These thinner snow pack areas have a red flag snow pack structure, with stronger snow on top of weaker snow near the ground. We were finding a one finger hard slab just above large grained faceted snow. One fairly recent human triggered slide helped to confirm our observations.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
We observed very little snow transport, but there could be a few lingering wind slabs in the more exposed terrain that a person could stumble into.
Comments
We came across this fairly recent slide we think may have been sled triggered on a steep northeast aspect, where strong southwest winds overloaded weak snow near the ground. Not a huge slide, but these hard slab avalanches can fracture very deep and pile up bone crushing blocks of snow.
A view of the slide from a distance showing terrain where winds can quickly transport snow onto the leeward side.
