Observation: Days Fork

Observation Date
12/22/2014
Observer Name
Andy Rich
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork
Location Name or Route
Lower Days Fork
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Strong
Weather Comments
Strong winds broke all the precipitated crystals and rimed them, some graupel but lots of rime fragments creating dense snow surface.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Density
High
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments

Small rimed fragments with strong winds made for dense surface slabs in deposition zones and lots of areas scoured to the ground. The dense slabs overlay lower density NSF with a very noticeable "upside-down" feel. The patchwork of scouring and deposition made it very difficult to make an average HS estimation.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Couldn't be a whole lot more obvious...
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments

The cracking and collapsing were top notch today- thunderous collapses and cracks shooting 100' easily. The strange thing was that we couldn't get anything to move- kept coming up on slopes thinking this one will slide for sure, big collapse, shooting cracks, cut a cornice, nothing. We weren't in very steep terrain, but it was easily avalanche terrain, several slopes mid to high 30's, obvious avalanche paths, and we couldn't get anything to move. Still, we're no dummies, we kept our exposure to a minimum, but still... maybe some friction at the interface from the storm coming in so warm? Digging down in it looked like most of the collapsing was in the NSF from before this storm, and depth of cracks/new snow were routinely up to 2 feet.

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