Observation Date
3/15/2015
Observer Name
Glew
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver Fork
Location Name or Route
Silver Fork
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Warm day with high thin clouds and a light ridgetop wind
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Found some pretty nice corn like conditions on southerly facing slopes. Ventured into the high north facing terrain of silver fork headwall and found it to be rather damp with roller balls coming down naturally and from me skiing. The snow appeared to be on the dry side from the ridge but after a few turns I realized it was actually quite damp and I knocked off some small roller balls. If you are heading out there tomorrow I'd recommend starting early ending early.

Poking around on the Emma's I found a lot of it had melted out and places that hold snow still are about 2-3 feet deep. I would suspect that the Emma's will be down to mostly dirt in no time unless it snows soon.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Rapid Warming
Red Flags Comments
Tonight forcast is for another night of not freezing, I would expect even high elevation north facing terrain to have a potential to wet slide.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wet Snow
Problem #1 Comments

Sometime around Saint Patty's Day the sun gets high enough in the sky that it affects even high elevation north facing terrain. Well today was the day that it went off, just a couple days before the holiday. I just looked at the temps for Alta tonight and there will be a low of 37 F, which makes me think that all aspects will be even more prone to wet avalanches tomorrow. I would assume that the snow will cool off enough tonight to make for some supportable skiing in the morning but as the days progresses things will get even mushier and more prone to wet avalanches.

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