Get Your Ticket to the 32nd Annual Backcountry Benefit on September 11th! Support Forecasting, Awareness, and Education
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
1/19/2013
Observer Name
Brackelsberg / Paradis
Region
Salt Lake
Location Name or Route
Lambs Canyon / Box Canyon
Weather
Sky
Clear
Weather Comments
Cold morning in the canyon bottoms, but beautiful bluebird day up high.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Faceted Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments
Amazingly large surface hoar crystals in the shaded and low areas (see photos below). Based on this surface hoar, I would expect that our next snow fall will give us a similar result to what we had with the last storm where we had a lot of slides on the buried surface hoar layer. Maybe we will be lucky enough not to have the next storm put a wind slab on top of the surface hoar.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Since we were in the known red flag zones for poor snowpack structure, we were not surprised to find similar results to our last 2 pits (Summit Park - http://utahavalanchecenter.org/observations/observation-summit-park and Alexander Basin - http://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/accident-depth-hoar-bowl).
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments

The persistent weak layer (surface hoar buried beneath a hard wind slab with the last storm snow on top of it) showed to be very similar to what we have seen in other mid elevation areas. I would expect this to be an issue on slopes similar to this until it is buried by 1 or 2 more storms and has bridged.

Note our pit was in a safe location, buy we did not ski this slope based on the results.

Snow Profile
Aspect
Northwest
Elevation
9,300'
Slope Angle
30°
Comments

This was the same location we put a pit in on 31-December: http://utahavalanchecenter.org/observations/observation-box-canyon. In comparing these results,

  • The depth hoar has increased significantly
  • The multiple crusts from 31-Dec have somewhat consolidated.
  • The overall snow depth has only increase 20 cm.

The first 2 photos below show the very large surface hoar crystals we observed. The 3rd photo was very interesting to us. As we were breaking trail we quickly noticed a very distinct change in the feeling of the snow. Upon evaluation, we noticed a hard layer (maybe a vapor layer) beneath the large surface hoar crystals. The photo did not turn out very well, but if you look closely you can see the surfac hoar, then a 2-3mm layer, then the last storm snow beneath it.

Coordinates