UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Observation: Park City Ridgeline

Observation Date
2/7/2019
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline
Location Name or Route
PC Ridgeline
Weather
Sky
Scattered
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Cold with a thin veil of clouds in the AM, strong wind from the west on the ridge line moving snow, clear in the PM with decreasing wind speeds.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
4"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
Hard to tell but I’m thinking 4 to 5 inches of new light density snow overnight. There were some newly formed wind slabs on both south and N facing, with a density inversion as the weak layer.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Comments
Went back to take a look at the South Monitor slide and also to have a look in West Monitor. The slide in S Monitor was impressive running its full historic track and plastering the large old pines at the end of the track with snow 30ft up the trunks. While dropping into the bed surface I triggered a wind slab about five inches deep and running a couple hundred feet, someone had already triggered another pocket on the bed surface before I got there. The wind was creating sensitive new wind slabs and another party triggered a wind slab remotely on the shoulder of West Monitor. West Monitor looks to have avalanched multiple times during the storm but it didn’t appear that anything went near as big as South Monitor.
Photos: South Monitor from the bottom, wind slabs triggered on the bed surface of S Monitor, remotely triggered wind slab in West Monitor, wind blasting and moving snow on the ridge line and a video of the S Monitor slide and the remotely triggered wind slab in W Monitor
Video
Video
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable