Observation Date
1/4/2015
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper and Susi Hauser
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Maybird Gulch
Location Name or Route
Maybird to upper cirque
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Overcast with occasional light snow and light wind.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Faceted Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments
Still lots of very nice, soft, settled, snow left over from the past coupld storms last week. The cold temperatures have really preserved the snow. The snow surface is mostly fine grained faceted snow but near the shade of trees, it settled powder. Quite a bit of wind damage above 10,000' with a huge mixed bag ranging from hard wind slabs that you can hardly kick a boot into to soft, settled powder. Upper elevations are quite wind blasted with plenty of boulders and dramatic differences in snow depth ranging from bare rocks in wind eroded areas to very deep deposits of wind drifted snow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Poor Snowpack Structure
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Problem #1 Comments
Yes, there has been some wind drifting from a day or two ago but it seems like they have settled out fairly well. I did not get up into the extreme, wind blasted terrain at the highest elevations but I watched a couple folks descend from the Pfeifferhorn ridge down the Maybird headwall without triggering anything. All the wind slabs from the floor of the cirque were fairly dead, not cracking or reacting.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Problem #2 Comments
Especially in the thin snowpack areas you can still shove your pole to the ground in faceted snow but the snowpits there are unreactive as they are in the thicker snowpack areas. Things seem mostly dormant because of no recent weight added with the exception of the recently wind loaded areas in the past few days.
Comments
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
The upper cirque is quite wind blasted with plenty of boulders and rocks visible. It's in desperate need of a big storm without wind. We decided to not venture further up.
Yes, you can still find some scraps of nice powder in the upper elevations but they are hard to find. If you want good snow, stay below tree line in wind sheltered terrain where the snow remains very good.