Observation: Wolverine Peak

Observation Date
5/1/2018
Observer Name
Greg Gagne
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Wolverine Peak
Location Name or Route
Alta/Brighton Periphery
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Weather Comments
Increasing clouds by 1000 with convective buildup.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments

Snow stayed surprisingly cold and dry for a short while this morning, but then warmed rapidly by about 9 am first on east, then south. Upper elevation north aspects may still hold somewhat soft snow for Wednesday.

Comments

Anywhere from 10-25 cms (4-10") settled storm snow in upper LCC/BCC.

Wolverine environs .... Stupid Chute, Figure 8 Hill, etc.

Easy to get damp soft slabs to peel off of the April 16th dust layer with a ski cut on anything approaching about 35 degrees in steepness. With modest amounts of storm snow, debris piles were relatively small, but I imagine if a slide was able to run long distances and entrain enough snow, there would be sizeable debris.

When exiting at 1100 I noticed quite a bit of tracks in Wolverine Cirque, where most of the chutes had either slid from ski cuts or naturaled fro warming. These were mostly class 1.5 and generally harmless. The April 16th dust layer was a very prominent bed surface.

Images showing

[1] Portion of Wolverine Cirque and loose wet and damp soft slabs

[2] Building clouds by late morning.

Hopefully Wednesday system materializes providing at least one more day of riding powder. Any avalanche activity over the next several days at least show involve new snow only.

Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None