Observation Date
2/9/2020
Observer Name
steven sadler
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mill D North
Location Name or Route
Shangri-la
Comments
Explored back in the Shangri-la zone up in Mill D today and was surprised to find two layers in a pit I dug at 9400 ft north facing aspect. After smoothing out the wall of the column the only layer I could feel was the melt/freeze crust two inches down. Under the crust was around 4 finger hardness for 12" or so then transitioning to one finger and pencil further down. I expects to be able to see or feel Monday's light snow but it seemed to have compressed or settled with the new heavy snow on top. Performed an ECT and didn't notice a propagation ( slope was only 25 degrees) but when I stuck my shovel behind the column a slab 20cm thick popped out so easily I think I must have had a full failure in the column but didn't realize it. Examining the layer it failed on it appeared to be the snow from Monday's storm. Super light and fluffy but extremely thin,possibly fasceted between Monday's storm and Thursday's. (See picture of snow on glove). After examining that layer I put my shovel back behind the column and had another failure 10cm lower. This one however didn't propagate through the entire column. This layer appeared to fail on some old graupel. This spooked me enough to keep me on mellow terrain for the day.





Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates