Observation Date
3/3/2018
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas » Bear River Ranger District » Gold Hill
Location Name or Route
Gold Hill
Weather
Sky
Broken
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Mild temperatures, but steady and gusty winds throughout the day. Partly sunny for a good part of the day with clouds moving in around mid-afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
A mixed bag of snow conditions with lots of wind effect, old hard sled tracks, some decent settled dense snow in the most protected areas and a thin melt freeze crust on sunny aspects.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Red Flags Comments
Wind slabs and dense drifted snow throughout the Gold Hill area. Some of the fresh wind slabs would crack ahead of skis and sleds, most of these were shallow, only a few inches deep and pockety and not real connected. Did however trigger a deeper hard wind slab just off the ridge line on a steeper section. This location was rocky and shallow and only needed to collapse the weak layer where the slab was thin.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
Today it seemed like wind slabs were the main issue in my travels. With strong sustained winds the last two days, many slopes have developed both hard and soft wind slabs. Some of these were sensitive to the weight of a person, while many were hard and nonreactive.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
The storm moving in tonight should add some weight to the snow pack and possibly stress some of the buried weak layers where the snow pack is thin or slopes that have avalanched this season.
Snow Profile Comments
Recent winds have been working over the terrain leaving hard wind slabs and this rough textured snow surface.
I was able to trigger this small hard wind slab just off the ridge line. It was about 16" deep, only 50' across and failed on some preserved faceted snow. These hard slabs will be covered by the new snow forecasted for this evening and could make conditions tricky.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
