Observation Date
12/21/2013
Observer Name
Paradis / Caplis
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Maybird Gulch
Location Name or Route
Red Pine - Maybird
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northeast
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Other than a few periods of more heavy snow, snowfall was generally pretty light. Wind was similar - mostly light with occasionally more windy periods.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
10"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

New snow from this week really helped. Noticed a light rime crust particularly in more open areas. It didn't affect skiing much.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
The main red flag is the poor snowpack structure. It has all the ingredients - facets, then slab, then some new powder to make it ski well and provide a little additional loading. On the uphill, the snow was mostly supportable but at times your pole would sink into bottomless facets. This was most noticable in areas where rocks had created weak spots. I noticed one small collapse in a flat area.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Problem #1 Comments

As noted above in red flags, the shallow snow pack has all the ingredients for avalanches.

Snow Profile
Aspect
North
Elevation
9,600'
Slope Angle
35°
Comments

The profile above is a composite from a few hand/pole pits and the numbers are approximations. I didn't do formal tests in these pits but did see some variation in strength. In a few cases, the column I created with my pole failed on isolation. In others, I did a quick compression test with my shovel blade without results. The lower we skied, the snow was thinner and the facets were larger.

Right at treeline, we dug a pit in one wind loaded spot and found more than 2 meters of snow. Here the only weaknesses were in the new snow as the facets were buried by 1.5m of snow. Our CT and ECT test results were low 20's with generally poor shear quality. I didn't post a profile because it wasn't representative of most of the snow we saw today.

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