Observation: White Pine

Observation Date
3/2/2020
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine
Location Name or Route
White Pine
Weather
Sky
Broken
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Beautiful day but the mountaintop clouds played cat and mouse with the sun so it was alternating sunny and cloudy all day. Light wind.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
About 6-7 inches of new snow at higher elevations, deposited without much wind, on a variable sun crusts and on top of dense, settled snow on straight north facing. Sun exposed aspects developed a sun crust on the surface by the end of the day. Best turning on northerly facing slopes at upper elevations. You could see and feel many pre-existing tracks beneath the new snow but still dramatically improved turning conditions from before the cold front.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Rapid Warming
Red Flags Comments
Very light, new snow on top of variable surfaces from the past week of no snow. The new snow stuffed easily in widespread areas on any slope that approached 40 degrees but the new snow was so light and not particularly deep, so stuffs were mostly a non-issue. But some of the stuffs that collected into a terrain trap depression could have buried someone in the wrong circumstances. On sun exposed slopes, especially at lower elevations the new snow warmed rapidly by the occasional sun creating damp stuffs. Only a couple parties were out today in upper White Pine. A couple people broke trail up the face to the top of Red Baldy and put some nice tracks down between the previous sluffs, but did not appear to kick anything else off. We could easily stuff out snow on any steep slope, running on the slick sun crusts from the previous week. Some slopes had widespread stuffing with very little undisturbed snow left. Mostly low danger but moderate danger for a larger stuff in high consequence terrain.
Comments
Here's a few photos of the widespread sluffing in steep terrain and one just because it was so pretty out today.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None