Observation Date
12/21/2013
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Bear Trap
Location Name or Route
Bear Trap - day off skiing with Susi
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Light snow all day and foggy on the ridge tops. Lots of beautiful riming on the trees.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
4"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

Nice riding conditions and the new snow has greatly improved things, especially with Thursday's dense snow.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Got some collapsing of the snowpack on to basal faceted snow on some of the flatter terrain, especially in the bottom of the valley. Very poor snowpack structure. Difficult to isolate columns.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Problem #1 Comments

Even though it was supposed to be my day off (ha, there is never such an animal as my long-suffering wife often reminds me) I dug about 6 quick pits and found it difficult to isolate columns in about half of them and the other half failed easily on medium wrist taps. No I did not want to venture steeper than 30 degrees and played it safe all day. Sorry no photos snow profiles or videos on my day off. That's all I got.

Danger rating is tricky because with a shallow snowpack, even small avalanches are high consequence because of almost certainly hitting rocks and logs on the way down. So avalanches are automatically higher consequence. Avalanche danger is probability times consequence. So the danger is higher than similar sized avalanches in a deeper snowpack. Not sure if it's Level 4 or Level 3. Since I'm not willing to even consider going on or underneath steeper slopes right now, it's probably Level 4 using the pucker factor, which is far more reliable than the official definitions.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
High
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable