Went to the West Willow Ridgeline looking for the last bastion of untracked snow around. Surface snow has already faceted, and seems like the whole snow pack might be soon to follow. We noted that the tails of our skis were sinking through the entire snow pack in some areas. West Willow is thin due to the solstice avalanching that cleaned out much of the snow pack up to that point in time. Thinking with continued cold clear nights the rate of faceting will accelerate in the thinner snow pack areas. Never got warm enough today to soften the melt freeze crust on the south facing aspects, breakable crust increased the difficulty of our exit. Not much to take photos of right now things are kinda stagnant right now, throwing in a pic of a little graupel\facet skiing from today
Observation Date
1/21/2015
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Willows » West Willow
Location Name or Route
West Willow Ridgeline
Comments
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low