Observation: Duke Bowl

Observation Date
3/23/2013
Observer Name
Michael Janulaitis
Region
Uintas
Location Name or Route
Duke
Weather
Sky
Broken
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
12"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Cracking
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Problem #1 Comments

2 of us headed up to Duke this morning from Upper Setting. While skinning up the north east ridge I was able to easy trigger new snow slides on the south side with light cornice kicks. One was about 80 feet wide and ran about 100 feet before stopping on lower angle terrain. Quite a bit of snow was involved. I wouldn't have wanted to get pinned up against any of the trees that were in the way. The north half of the compass was another story. In summary the best day of the year. We lucked out. After getting blasted on the ridge line the sun poked through and the wind died. It was cold and sunny. The open lines on Duke have filled in and wind loading was the least I've seen all year in the open terrain...virtualy non-existent. Light on top, dense on bottom, setup good. Of coarse there were areas that were loaded which you would not want to commit to but we were able to get into some of the open terrain without too much worry. Both of us were able to trigger several small sluffs on rollovers but the slides were expected, small and manageable.