Observation Date
3/3/2020
Observer Name
Grainger, Feinberg
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mill B South
Location Name or Route
Broads/Mill B South
Comments
Most activity since Sunday has been shallow (~2-6"), loose and falls into 3 categories of sluff:
1) Sunday dry-loose- During the early afternoon Sunday, during the highest PI, there was widespread dry-loose activity on slopes ~37 degrees and steeper. Running on last week's thermal crust, these point releases picked up hazardous volume only in concave terrain features that promoted it.
2) Monday warming dry-loose (Photo #1)- Monday's sun warmed East then South then West faces quickly and steep/rocky areas were prone to point releases from rocks heating or tree bombs.
3) Human-triggered sluffs (Photo #2)- In dry snow these were isolated to ski-width on terrain steeper than mid-30s or convexities. Some of these pieces were entraining a bit more snow in warm solar areas by Monday afternoon. Overall very manageable.
The surface snow in most places is still soft medium-density above ~8500' and progressively denser the lower you go under that. Light winds (occasional mod. gusts) could lead to isolated soft wind slabs in load-likely areas but no observed concerns by mid-day along ridgelines.
The Instability/Hazard scale will not tip toward hazardous unless skiers end up in complex terrain features with voluminous sluffing above them. Heating this week may continue the wet-loose activity.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low
Coordinates