Observation: Hogum

Observation Date

2/19/2016

Observer Name

Tyler Falk

Region

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Hogum

Location Name or Route

Maybird to Hogum

Weather

Sky

Clear

Wind Direction

Southwest

Wind Speed

Strong

Weather Comments

Clear this morning with moderate to strong winds off the ridgelines that were channeling snow through terrain features. West winds were transporting snow long distances. Sun did not seam to effect the snow surface above 9k, likely due to the wind and temps. Below that wet and very wet snow was found on all aspects including north. Sky cover changed from clear to scattered around mid day. It seamed to me like there was a little less wind in the mid canyon part of LCC compared to observations from BCC and what I saw up in the Northern Wasatch yestarday. I was expecting to see many more downed trees. I counted only 3 or 4 downed trees compared to Bruce's observation where he reported 50 in Beartrap.

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth

New Snow Density

Medium

Snow Surface Conditions

Dense Loose

Wind Crust

Rain-Rime Crust

Damp

Snow Characteristics Comments

One inch of new snow at the White Pine trailhead on top of a rain crust. (7600') Higher up there was 5" of new snow at 9500'. West aspects were scoured in most places. There was a wide distribution of graupel under the new snow and pooling noticed in many locations. North aspects in Maybird had 200cm at 9688'. Later in the day I saw a fairly consistent 200+ cm snowpack on East aspects at 10k in Hogum. Surprisingly the low elevation snowpack is still hanging in there with 55cm at 7k on shady aspects which made for a easier exit than expected.

Red Flags

Wind Loading

Cracking

Rapid Warming

Red Flags Comments

The wind slabs I encountered today were only a few inches deep and typicaly on aspects with a eastern component. The consistant strong winds today loaded many aspects down to the mid elevations.

Avalanche Problem #1

Problem

Wind Drifted Snow

Trend

Same

Problem #1 Comments

Strong winds seamed to keep loading Friday afternoon and will be a concern for Saturday. Although I only noticed shallow wind slabs I'am sure you could find deeper slabs that would be a more major threat especially in unforgiving terrain and with how slick the sliding surface would be.

Avalanche Problem #2

Problem

Cornice

Trend

Same

Problem #2 Comments

With the amount of wind we have received I am sure the cornices are growing.