Observation Date
12/11/2013
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Grizzly Gulch
Location Name or Route
Grizzly Gulch - with a video crew doing tutorials
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Beautiful day and finally warm enough to not wear extra thick layers. Finally back to normal temperatures.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Snow is quite a mixed bag with wind damaged snow and slabby conditions in wind exposed terrain but there is some nice, settled powder in the wind sheltered terrain but it conceals so many rocks that it's hard to enjoy because you never know when your will clunk something hard with potentially nasty consequences. The total snowpack is still only about 2 feet deep in most places and much less on south facing slopes and wind eroded slopes. We really need more snow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
I was out with a video crew doing tutorials on snowpits and reading terrain much of the day so I was not able to see a wide variety of terrain. No, the video had nothing to do with the recent accident, but, of course, we had to visit the site and poke around. After we were done, I zipped up to Honycomb to see how bad the wind drifteing was at upper elevations.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
With all the well-publicized avalanche activity recently, people seem to be finally avoiding the steep, northerly facing slopes. There are certainly monsters in the basement and they are called persistent weak layers for a reason. They won't be going away very fast. This kind of instability tends to last for many days and SLOWLY becomes temporarily dormant as the snowpack slowly relaxes and the overlying slab is slowly eaten away by the latest round of temperature gradient metamorphism. We need to avoid these slopes probably through the weekend. See my video below.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
The wind had its way with the wind exposed terrain a couple days ago and it left lots of hard wind slabs and eroded snow in most of the upper elevation, wind exposed slopes. These are still cracking under my weight but they are rapidly becoming stubborn. I noticed the resorts are still able to trigger some of them with explosives.
Snow Profile Comments
Here is a quick video of the snowpack and an Extended Column Test near the site of the close call a couple days ago in Grizzly Gulch. Still sketchy and it probably won't be going away very fast.
Video
Here is a photo of the famous avalanche from a couple days ago--this one from a better angle so you can see the entire path and where she was buried at the bottom of the sharp terrain trap. Refer to the accident report for more details.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates
