Ad
The National Forest Service Logo
icon-add Observation
Forecasts
Logan Ogden Salt Lake Provo Uintas Skyline Moab Abajos Weather Archives How to read the forecast
Observations & Avalanches
Submit Observation Observations Explorer All Observations Avalanches Fatalities Weather Place Names Map Archives
Education
Avalanche Class List UAC Class List Online Classes Resources and Tutorials Avalanche Awareness Develop Skills
Events
Store
About
Contact Who we are Core Values Staff Board of Directors Past Forecasters Sponsors Annual Reports Sign In
Blog
icon-add Observation
Donate / Join

Observation Date
1/14/2013
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake
Location Name or Route
Scotts Peak, Radar Love, No Name Bowl
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Cold and mostly clear, thank God there was no wind or I wouldn't have been out very long.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments
Snow was cold and squeaky, with absolutely no glide. Dense and creamy 6 to 8 inches of snow in the areas traveled. The denseness of the surface snow was due to wind compaction. Not wind crust just creamy.
Comments

Travel today was Scotts Peak, Radar Love, No Name Bowl. 6 to 8 inches of total new snow well bonded in most locales, except new snow sluffing in steeper terrain such as Scotts Peak. Also some natural cornice drops in Scotts induced no activity.

Seems to me there might have already been a riming event from the moisture laden cloud from yesterday afternoon. Noted rime on trees and bushes all over the areas traveled.

Surface hoar, and NSF taking place rapidly with the cold temps, noted surface hoar on Scotts peak, Radar Love mid slope and the ridge to No Name, And some faceting in W facing USA Bowl. Pics in that order,

Took a couple of shots of the cornice drop in West Monitor, all time classic place for a slide, rocky and unsupported. Looks to me like a large cornice drop that just gouged down into old snow and did not propagate to any extent, seems like most of the debris was from the large cornice. No cracking or collapsing or other instabilities noted today, except for the frigid temps.