Observation Date
2/1/2013
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas
Location Name or Route
Hwy 150-Murdock Basin and Bald Mtn.
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
A cloudy start to the day, but by early afternoon fairly good visibility, but the west northwest winds are still quite gusty.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
10"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
The winds this week have really had their way in the upper elevations, many slopes are rough with wind textured snow and the denser snow from late in the storm have made some slightly inverted conditions. Not a real issue for sledders, but skiers and boarders will find it a little dense. It looks like you could find about 10" total from this weeks storm. Many areas are slowly filling in and it looks a little more like winter.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
It looks like the area went through a decent natural cycle, I was able to see a fair amount of debris in the run-out zones of the bigger slide paths on Murdock, Bald Mt. and Hayden Peak. The steady winds have filled in many of the crowns and the start zones of these bigger paths are getting re-loaded. A few collapses and cracking within the new snow as I traveled around in the wind zone.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
I think the steady winds are the main issue from my observations, the recent storm did not really reach the Uintas, but the winds are making up for the lack of snow. Many areas are seeing steady wind drifting which is oveloading a weak snow pack. The recent wind slabs are fairly sensitive to the weight of a person and are cracking out up to two feet deep and propagating out ahead of skis and sleds.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Problem #2 Comments
Not enough new snow to activate the weak layer, but the winds have overloaded this layer in places and possibly just waiting for a trigger. My snow pit tests had the weak snow failing with 15 and 17 taps from the elbow and propagating across the column, but not lots of energy.
Comments
Where the snow pack has been thin and weak all season this new dense snow easily collapses on this weak snow. A quick hand pit on the road cuts revealed this weakness. This second photo shows how fat some of the aprons are on Bald Mt. Likely some natural avalanches occurred during the recent storm.
Today's wind slabs were fairly sensitive to the weight of a person, cracking out a couple of feet deep and propagating across this test slope. These wind slabs were mainly on slopes facing north through southeast facing slopes.
