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Observation Date
2/28/2015
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Grizzly Gulch » Patsy Marly
Location Name or Route
Grizzly to Patsy Marly - quick trip
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Southeast
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
With a crack of 2 pm start, we only had time for a quick trip up Grizzly to Patsy Marly and back. Light snow with a moderate southeast ridgetop wind and the wind seemed to calm down around 3 pm when it started snowing harder and coming straight down.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
2"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

There was only couple inches of new snow today but it fell on top of about 7 inches from a couple days ago so the turning conditions were quite good.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Red Flags Comments
The east wind caused some drifting along the upper elevation ridges but it did not extend too far below the ridge. We could find some localized wind slabs that would crack out but they were quite small where we were. I could tell that on other slopes they could have been much more of a problem.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Problem #1 Comments

The main problem is fresh wind slabs within the new snow. The snow without wind seems to be staying in place quite well. There is about 7 inches of fresh snow from the past few days and it's quite low density so there's a lot of snow to blow around. It does not take much wind to be a problem.

Since the wind seemed to drop as the main part of the system arrived on a southwesterly flow, tomorrow the fresh wind slabs from today will be concealed beneath fresh snow with less wind. Depending on what happens overnight, if the wind picks up from the southwest, then we will have two episodes of wind slabs from different directions. Generally they are soft and relatively easy to deal with unless you are in high consequence terrain.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate