Wanted to check out the upper Snake Creek cirque and surrounding area today after reading continuously that this is an area of concern by UAC forecasters. Everything proved to be true....

I dug a pit on a SE aspect at 10,150 ft, in a sheltered area with no obvious signs of wind loading. HS was 135 cm. A small part of the left side of my ECT block was affected by a rock during my test. However I don't view this as a negative as it showed me what would happen if you were to hit this trigger point as a skier. It's a nightmare scenario for someone traveling in the backcountry. The deeper of the two persistent weak layers is buried right at 1 meter below the surface, this is a rocky area, and the snowpack is relatively shallow in comparison to other areas of the Central Wasatch. I got an ECTP23 down 105cm from the surface, on the December facet layer. I want to point out again that my pit was located in an area where a rock did affect the results of my ECT. The interface where the slab propagated was comprised of garbage decomposing snow and 2-4mm advanced facets.

Bottom line, these areas of concern, are areas of concern for a reason. In the upper reaches of Snake Creek just beyond the Brighton boundary, shallow snowpack, combined with poor snowpack structure, in a rocky area, is a recipe for disaster. If you hit the sweet spot in an area like this, just about everything we have in the snowpack is going to slide. Low probability - high consequences in most places where the PWL is present. Extra caution should be used when traveling in terrain similar to Snake Creek, and the avalanche forecast should be read very carefully as this is something we have been warned about all season, that there are certain areas to avoid with our current snowpack, lack of snow depth and terrain features (such as very rocky terrain.)