Observation: Provo

Observation Date
2/13/2013
Observer Name
Kobernik
Region
Provo
Location Name or Route
Provo Region
Weather
Weather Comments
Low clouds threatening to obscure things for the last two days but never really did. Some localized wind today.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
8"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

6 to 12" of snow from our last storm. Less prone to sluffing today than yesterday.

Comments

Seems like a mostly stable situation right now. The snowpack varies greatly around the Provo region. North of Provo Canyon around Timpanogos the pack has lots of thinner areas with lots of weak snow. South of Provo Canyon has a deeper upper elevation pack with lots of areas that don't have buried facets that are currently alarming. However, there are spots that you stumble across where the pack is thin and punchy, albeit a scattered issue. The lower elevations (<8000') still contain a shallow very poor structure due to the fact that they rotted out so bad during January. Lots of steep gullies and terrain traps that should be avoided if they were to see a decent new snow load.

There was lots of evidence of loose snow avalanching during the last storm but this is old news and not a concern at this time. I did note a couple of new snow slab avalanches that occurred during the last storm as well. This one below perhaps could've broken into old weak snow in this thinner unsupported snow field. This area has already avalanched this year as well giving it a thinner overall pack.