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Observation: Red Pine Gulch

Observation Date
12/26/2018
Observer Name
Wilson, Hardesty, Hamlin
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Red Pine
Location Name or Route
Red Pine Lake Shot
Weather
Sky
Broken
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Started in broken sky, light snowfall. Ended with scattered clouds, no snowfall, colder temps. Have to say it: Magical cloud day.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
4+ inches of light new snow throughout tour. All our terrain was sheltered and/or north facing, so no sun crust underneath. At the higher elevations, the undisturbed snow landed on wind crusts/slabs, but hadn't itself been hammered.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Basal facets remain the norm on high north through northeast, with recent failures on this layer in repeater slopes of South Monitor and--a couple days ago--Days Fork. Long-running point releases in new snow observed on east-facing steep terrain between Red Pine and Maybird. Small soft slabs broke moderately easily under skis in a few wind-touched areas. Appeared to be a small soft slab above skin tracks in upper Tanners.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
No evidence from our tour that the incremental loading over the last several days had tipped the scale; weak October facets still dry and loose at high elevations, but we didn't see activity on this layer.
We planned to ski Lake Shot, but first dug two NNE pits at 10,400' in shallower-than-average rocky locations. With 70cm of increasingly (from surface to base) hard snow over 20cm of facets, the poor structure remains. One pit propogated a clean fracture on the 3rd hit from the shoulder on the facets overlying the October crust. Another yielded ECTX, but CT 14 on the same layer.
What to do?
Our run looked rather rocky and shallow, which made us think of 1) bad skiing, 2) trigger points, and 3) worse consequences if we were wrong. Hard say which of those three factors was the driver in our decision, but we decided to ski thicker and lower-angle terrain to the West of Lake Shot.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
With calm winds during our tour, and with undisturbed stellars on the snow surface and on tree limbs even at higher elevations, wind-drifted snow was not a primary concern.
That said, evidence of wind loading was still visible under the pristine snow.
What's more, small pockets where minimal wind deposition had occurred recently did break moderately easily under our skis. Areas with higher winds likely had a more significant soft slab/wind slab problem than we observed.
The snow is very light and would be easily transported if winds were to pick-up in the next 24.
Snow Profile
Aspect
North
Elevation
10,400'
Slope Angle
28°
Comments
Photos: New snow, new snow sluffs, pit location, chose a different run.
Photos: Couple of cloud shots, then new snow undisturbed in the calm weather.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate