Observation Date
1/16/2015
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas » Bear River Ranger District » Humpy Creek
Location Name or Route
Whitney Basin- Humpy Creek
Weather
Sky
Broken
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
The day started out with broken clouds and decent visibility, but lowering clouds and moderate to strong winds moved in for the afternoon. No new snow while I was in the area.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
The shady north facing slopes still have some nice dense settled powder, while a melt freeze crust was found on some of the south facing slopes.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Red Flags Comments
The red flag conditions I was encountering today were up along the exposed ridge lines where moderate to strong southwest winds were blowing and drifting quite sensitive wind slabs just off the ridge lines.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
I was not expecting the newly developed wind slabs to be quite as sensitive as I encountered along one of the higher Humpy Creek ridge lines. I was able to trigger shallow wind slabs from a distance just by walking along the ridge. The dense wind blown snow is falling on weak surface snow.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
It does not look like the storm will bring much in the way of new snow, but gusty winds might overload some of the shallow weak snow pack areas where some weak layers are found in the middle of the pack.
Comments
My travels took me along one of the higher ridge lines in Humpy Creek where north facing slopes were getting wind deposited snow from moderate to strong southwest winds. Some of these shallow new slabs were quite sensitive and could be triggered just by walking along the ridge line. These wind slabs were falling on weak surface snow which made them very reactive.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
