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Observation: White Pine

Observation Date
3/12/2020
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine
Location Name or Route
White Pine
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Bluebird, not a cloud in the sky. Incredible! Just enough of a cool breeze that it kept things from cooking too much in the sun.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Snow Characteristics Comments
We got out for some "social distancing" as they say in these Corona virus times. A lap up Red Baldy and one up the shoulder of Lake Peak. We saw the intrepid Mark White and Pete Ingle on their second lap on Red Baldy as we were just starting up. I thought it sure skied like, and made tracks like, Mark White and I found out later that it was indeed the master himself. So this will likely be a repeat of his ob, but I don't care, I'm putting one in anyway.
There was actually some quite good turning conditions at upper elevation, northerly facing slopes out of the wind. It was best between about 11,000 and 10,000' in relatively wind-sheltered gully features. I took a run on an un-skied shot to the looker's left of the beauty-tracks laid down by Mark and Peter (didn't want to ruin perfection with our Mark White imitation, which will always be doomed to fail. At least wee did non stops. I found a fabulous run through mostly deep, graupel-pool apron. Yep, graupel was the ticket. We also found some good, dense-snow turning on the northerly aspects of Lake Peak shoulder and down into the basin bottom. By the time you get down to about 9,500' it's all over and everything is sun crusted combined with old wind slabs. Everything is refrozen sun crusts with the exception of dry, dense, old snow with a skiff of graupel above about 9,500' on northerly, wind-sheltered slopes. Yep, it's pretty limited but it's real good riding especially on a bluebird day. Big smiles.
Red Flags
Red Flags Comments
No red flags to speak of. There's some old wind slabs that feel funky but I could not get any of them to crack out. There's also about an inch of recent graupel from perhaps yesterday at upper elevations that rolled off the steeper terrain and pooled in gullies and aprons 6 inches to a foot deep in places. It all seemed to stay in place well. The breeze was just cool enough and strong enough to keep any wet activity from sun warming at bay, as near as I could tell, but I was mostly on upper elevation, shady slopes so I wasn't specifically looking for it. Mostly low danger where we were. Many of the bigger lines had various amounts of tracks on them--Lake Peak Chute was especially tracked up. Red Baldy had several descents including ours and Mark White. We only saw a couple other parties in the drainage. We kept at least a half mile of fresh air and sunshine between us and them, as recommended by the Corona Virus experts--self-isolation, social distancing, which I've been practicing most of my life. Still healthy, so there.
Comments
A few photos: 1) tracks on Lake Peak Chute. 2) Tracks on Red Baldy north facing. The nice tracks were made by two laps from Mark White and Pete Ingle. Afterwards, Susi and I went up to do our best Mark White imitation but, as everyone does, came up short. Susi put one track down next to theirs and I put one in the looker's left in a wonderful, deep pool of graupel in the gully. Sorry, Mark and Peter for messing with your perfection. 3) Susi and I head up as Mark is getting ready to descend.
A few more photos for your viewing pleasure. #2, Susi heading the shoulder of Lake Peak.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates