Observation: Alta Periphery

Observation Date

3/1/2014

Observer Name

Aaron Rice

Region

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Alta Periphery

Location Name or Route

Point Supreme

Weather

Sky

Broken

Precipitation

Light Snowfall

Wind Direction

Southwest

Wind Speed

Moderate

Weather Comments

In the morning it was snowing moderate with occasional squalls of hard. The sky started off completely overcast and then the sun started poking out in the afternoon and the snow diminished to light. The wind was blowing light at times and approaching strong at others, with a general weakening trend throughout the day.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth

20"

New Snow Density

High

Snow Surface Conditions

Dense Loose

Wind Crust

Snow Characteristics Comments

via breaking trail, pole probing and a couple hand-pits, it was very obvious that there were several layers of inverted snow. However, the snow was significantly more stable today than yesterday. I was unable to get much cracking to occur, as opposed to yesterday, where on every step there would be shooting cracks. On a morning tour up cardiff found the same characteristics as in the afternoon on point supreme.

That being said, I kept my slope angle down today, and I would guess that you could get wind/new snow slabs to pull out in more exposed and steeper terrain. And a slide today could be 1-2ft deep (even deeper in heavily wind loaded terrain), making for an unmanageable avalanche, as opposed to yesterdays, numerous touchy, but mostly manageable slides.

Red Flags

Recent Avalanches

Wind Loading

Poor Snowpack Structure

Red Flags Comments

Wind loading was certainly still occurring, though slab formation was not as pronounced as yesterday.

Today's Observed Danger Rating

Considerable

Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating

Moderate

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