Observation: White Pine

Observation Date

12/1/2013

Observer Name

Aaron Rice

Region

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine

Location Name or Route

White Pine

Weather

Sky

Overcast

Wind Speed

Calm

Weather Comments

Sunny in the morning and by 3pm the clouds were thick and there were a few flurries around.

Snow Characteristics

Snow Surface Conditions

Wind Crust

Snow Characteristics Comments

Very thin layer of surface hoar on a 10cm wind slab on poorly formed facets

Red Flags

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

Lots of facets around today. We dug the pit to be representative of a higher elevation slope.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Persistent Weak Layer

Trend

Same

Problem #1 Comments

10cm thick, very sporadic, wind slabs sitting on varying quality facets. Not super reactive, CT25, ECTP13 at 10cm below surface. We didn't find any large load where we were though

Avalanche Problem #2

Problem

New Snow

Trend

Same

Problem #2 Comments

Where we dug the facets were best formed at the ground. About 2mm and reactive. Most of snowpack was faceted as well, but small grained (1+mm) and not reactive. A new load may change that though. The facets buried at the ground below the snow/dirt layer were reactive ECTP 19 @ 30cm from ground. In other areas where the pack was thinner the facets were much better formed and we noticed some additional surface hoar.

Snow Profile

Aspect

North

Elevation

10,200'

Slope Angle

33°

Comments

Fun(ky) tour today. Went up and tried to ski pink pine. Sugar top to bottom. A bit thin coverage to say the least. Then we headed up to birthday chutes off of red top. The snow was a good bit deeper on the North and Northwest facing slopes up there. As it was day 1 in the Wasatch we dug a full pit to see the facets we had been hearing about. We picked a slope just at the tree-line that had had a good bit of wind affect. Around 3 we dug our pit as it started to snow. Given the time we decided to head back to the trailhead and leave birthday chutes for another day. The new snow will be very welcome, though there is a lot of sugar out there.

Forecaster Comments: Good profile of White Pine - thanks. Quite a bit of variability but weak surface/near surface seems the rule with scattered hard wind slabs around.

Today's Observed Danger Rating

Low

Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating

Low

Coordinates

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