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Observation: Days Fork

Observation Date
3/15/2018
Observer Name
CBrown
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork
Location Name or Route
Upper Days. Cardiff
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Late start today, 12:30. Clouds only broke few short periods in afternoon. S1 snowfall, warm and some possible green housing. Very little wind, precip picked up about 16:30 to S2 or more for short period as front passed, but it fell straight down. Temps seemed to drop quicky around this time. 17:00 egress south back to Alta town, complete white out no vis, nauseating at times.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
6"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments
New snow from storm seemed to be 4-8" dense creamy snow. Seemed to be bonding well to old damp snow surface. Skied well due to density. Saw some graupel (limited) on south Flag on skin up around 13:30, maybe slight riming.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Red Flags Comments
Saw some small sluff loose dry where provoked. Upper 3~5" seemed to act as very soft slab. No cracking or collapsing observed. Skied NE two dogs wit out much reaction on snow. Felt pretty well bonded to old snow.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
New snow has formed a slab but very soft and no real major wind effect observed. Any movement of snow was more of a loose dry sluff type activity.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
Curious if any decent amount of moving snow would affect any of the buried PWL's. Quite a bit of water to put on the pack. If winds pick up or load increases much would like to see what happens on deeper layers.
Moderate hazard observed today with pockets of considerable. With more snow on the way and any wind I could see this changing quickly.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable