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Observation Date
4/26/2015
Observer Name
Paradis
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Catherine's Pass
Location Name or Route
Catherine's Pass
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Mostly light winds, except moderate along ridges. Visibility was mostly good, with one or two brief periods of thicker clouds.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
8"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments

The new snow from yesterday and last night skied pretty well this morning. The density made it feel pretty supportable without all that much ski penetration. Due to ridge top winds, west facing, open areas were fairly wind affected.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Red Flags Comments
I was a little suprised to observe some collapsing today on north facing slopes. At first I thought it was just the rain crust breaking or cracking but there was some fairly weak snow below the crust (see photo below) and I could feel a bit of a drop. It was more widespread than I would have thought.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments

The wind was most noticeable along ridges and was drifting snow in spots. These were easy to identify visually.

I didn't check any of the slab related boxes despite collapsing noted. The weak snow was damp and didn't seem to have much energy or much of a distinct slab. The snow structure was somewhat atypical so I was inclined to not fully trust it.

The photo above shows small wind slab easily triggered by ski cut on a ridge top test slope.

The photo above was from a mini pit at 10000 feet on a north facing slope.

There was about 24 cms of new snow in this location above the rain crust which was capped with a smaller 1 cm pencil hard crust.

Below the rain crust at about 35cms deep (where glove is), fist hardness wet grains were producing the collapsing noted above. I attempted to isolate a column here, but it collapsed as I was isolating it.

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