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Observation: Whitney Basin-Double Hill

Observation Date
1/9/2021
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas » Whitney Basin-Double Hill
Location Name or Route
Whitney Basin-Double Hill
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Southeast
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Mostly clear skies for a majority of the day with clouds filtering in mid-afternoon. Slightly cooler today with the cold air hanging around the lower drainages and a bit warmer higher up. Felt like a very light breeze form the southeast on the ridge lines. Just does not feel like early January!
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Dense Loose
Faceted Loose
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Despite the lean snow amounts, the snow conditions are quite decent with some nice dense settled powder.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Continued collapsing of the snow pack today with some of these collapses large and unsettling. The snow pack structure is still a red flag, although stability tests were not as sensitive as in the past.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
The snow pack is still producing lots of collapsing with a slightly denser slab resting on the very weak sugary snow near the ground.
Comments
Digging down about three feet, it is easy to find the weak layer of sugary snow near the ground and the slightly stronger slab of snow above. It was taking a little more effort to get a column of snow to crack, but once it did the crack quickly propagates across the column. A red flag that the snow pack is still likely to produce avalanches.
A few photos of some recent avalanches on Double Hill, I'm unsure the cause of these. There are some old sled tracks at the bottom or some natural cornice fall could be a possibility. The small isolated pocket is very interesting, maybe an animal or the larger slide sympathetically triggered it.
This peak to the west of Moffit Peak had some good natural avalanche activity recently. This entire east, northeast facing slope avalanched putting some decent debris piles at the bottom.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates