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Observation: Cottonwood Canyons

Observation Date
2/12/2017
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Cottonwood Canyons
Location Name or Route
Upper LCC, BCC
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Northeast
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Clear and cold in the morning with NE winds on the high ridges, warming temperatures and less wind in the afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Powder on the E,N,W, south facing started to be reactive around noon and was damp by 1:30pm, wind crust on some of the high, exposed NE.

Comments

Skied, south, north and east facing today, hit the south right as it was starting to dampen and produce sluffing down to the old bed surface on a steeper slope, the wet sluffs were not running at nearly the speed that the dry sluffs were. Dry sluffing continued most of the day with many skier triggered long running sluffs in steeper terrain, especially N and NE aspects. I did trigger one soft slab with a ski cut on a steep north facing slope with a crown about a foot deep, not a big surprise it had a bit of a wind slab in the top of the run. there were also some large dry sluffs on the S facing that were triggered by wet activity up in the rocks, spilling down on the still dry snow below and causing some fairly large debris piles at the bottom. On My exit out BCC around 2:00PM the west facing on the Reed and Benson ridge line started to go off in the sun with some pretty spectacular point releases pouring off the cliffs like waterfalls and leaving some decent sized debris piles in the aprons. I did notes some surface hoar growing down in the bottom of the drainage but highly doubt it will survive this weeks warm temperatures.

Photos: South facing dry sluff triggered by wet activity in the cliffs above, wet activity triggered by us skiing south a few minutes to late, flank of the soft slab triggered on wind affected due N, and the resulting debris pile.

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