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Observation: Ogden Mountains

Observation Date
12/29/2017
Observer Name
Lees, Gagne, Pollick
Region
Ogden » Ogden Mountains
Location Name or Route
Ogden area mountains
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Moderate winds along ridge lines, completely sheltered off ridge lines.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Faceted Loose
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments

Soft, dry snow on sheltered, shady slopes. Surface snow is faceting. Some 1 finger hard wind drifts. Snow was punchy in places, either from wind or from end of the storm denser snow.

Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Evidence of wind loading, both past and today. A couple of collapses on northerly facing slopes.
Snow Profile
Aspect
Northeast
Elevation
8,500'
Slope Angle
35°
Comments

Looked at northwesterly facing terrain, from about 8500' down to 8,000'. Checked out a crown from a slide triggered on Dec 25th. Profile above. The slide had also sympathetically triggered another descent sized slide. We looked at the crown in two different places, and got two different ECT results - ECTP33 and ECTP15 - about 150' apart. This shows why never to use a single pit to make GO travel decisions, only for NO GO.

Some portions of the smooth bed surface had a thin layer of faceted snow on top.

With recent avalanches, collapsing and poor snow pack structure, at several decision points we made conservative decisions, to avoid steep terrain and travel below steep slopes. A few extra minutes going up and around, an extra 10 minutes of skinning...equals no stress.

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