Observation: Days Fork

Observation Date
3/6/2013
Observer Name
Hardesty and Wilson
Region
Salt Lake
Location Name or Route
Benson-Reed Ridgeline
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Warm. Snow transport noted along the ridgelines...
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Damp
Red Flags
Red Flags
Rapid Warming
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
8200' Northeast facing tests - ECTP12Q1 down 35 cm on .5mm rounding facets from mid February...No collapsing or other corroborating info/evidence re:instability with this layer. Still-size, temperature, shape, metamorphism trend and so on can be misleading...in other words, it's too easy to put all your eggs in these baskets. Still, often what we look at with weaknesses (as encapsulated by McCammon's Lemons) is the garage scientist approach of 1-"How loose is the weakness?" and 2-"What is it's relationship to the layers above and below?" The faceted snow noted above were small, warm, and rounding, but still 'loose' - see quick video below. And - they supported full propagation with only a moderate bit of prodding. Pic below -
Video
Video

Coming well down off the Benson-Reed ridgeline, stopped off to take a look at how the lower elevation snowpack fared - see the video