Observation: Monitors

Observation Date
3/24/2013
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake
Location Name or Route
Monitors
Weather
Sky
Broken
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Another unusually cold day with mostly cloudy skies in the AM some clearing and sun in the afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
2"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Pretty amazed at how nice the snow stayed today. Cold temps and cloudy skies kept the South facing from going of until around 1:00pm, ESE started going off around 2:30 in the Monitors, every thing on the N end of the compass stayed cold and dry at least until 4:30pm when I left. S, SE and mabye E will be crusted in the morning.

Comments

Went to the Monitor today for a change of pace, storm totals seemed to be in the 15 to 16 inch range, denser snow at the bottom, light density on top. Still a few new shallow wind slabs could be coaxed out on the upper ridge line, but they were easily mitigated with ski cuts or cornice drops. I would assume that the hazard should remain fairly low until the heat is turned on, which might be in a couple days.

Photos: I came upon a soft slab apparently triggered by a skier-initiated cornice drop in West Monitor, shallow soft slab in South Monitor initiated with a ski cut, Large overhanging cornice that you might want to avoid when it heats up. Forecaster note: Another party contacted us to say that he kicked a cornice today and triggered this slab. He texted a photo but this photo taken by Mark is more clear.