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Observation Date
1/11/2013
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake
Location Name or Route
Monitors
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
snowing lightly and fairly cold in the morning, heard the wind was not blowing much but even down low in willow the wind was blowing moderately and moving and slabbing up the new snow. Apon reaching the ridge on West Monitor the wind were blasting, and transporting snow to the leeward slopes. During the day the temps dropped and the wind increased, pretty abussive on the high ridges, and lots of snow transport.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Snow was of medium density most likely from the wind compaction. Snow was also being blown into inverted drifts and hard slabs, and completely scoured to the old surface in places.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Poor Snowpack Structure
Comments

Travel was up Willow, West Monitor and South Monitor, exit out USA Bowl. Dropping a cornice in W Monitor produced no results, not enough load to produce any activity. Skiing in W Monitor was variable at best, bottom feeding in old tracks and wind and rime crust.

Dropped a fridge sized cornice in S Monitor with no results. Skiing in S Monitor was much the same as W Monitor, with the addition of hurky jerky inverted wind slabs here and there on the slope. Pics cornice drop in SM, Cracking on the ridge line, wind damage in the bowl. Track almost blown in before I could hike out.

Major instability today seemed to be the wind transport, moving a lot of snow and creating sensitive wind slabs, that might be a factor tomorrow. Pic wind blasting in the bottom of South Monitor.