Observation: west porter

Observation Date
3/21/2021
Observer Name
R. Kosinski
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » west porter
Location Name or Route
West Porter Fork
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
In many areas, the new snow fell on a melt/freeze or sun crust and the new snow has a density change about 4-6" below the surface which is making sluffs run far and fast. While sluffs are usually not a huge deal, today they were entraining a lot of snow and some of the debris piles could bury a person. I saw many sluffs running 300-700' long and up to 40' wide; many of these were releasing naturally and it was very easy to trigger a large sluff-alanche. This problem will likely decrease in a day or two but may create issues with soft slab avalanches as the next storm moves in.
Comments
Started my tour around 0800 this morning under cool, cloudy skis and falling snow. Winds throughout the day were non-existent. Headed up the West Porter slide path and there was around 8-12" of very light new snow containing rounds, stellars, and graupel. The weather was all over the place today as there were periods of sun, overcast, and moderate snowfall and temps went from warm to cold quickly. As I got toward the headwall I noticed numerous natural and human triggered sluff avalanches running 100-300' and 30' wide. What was most surprising was that some of these started as just a ball of snow falling off a tree and ran the entire path and had debris piles a 2-3' deep. Looking over into main Porter Fork there were areas around Gary's Gully & Peak 9776 that ran hundreds of feet wide that were all sluff avalanches and one area that appeared to have a sluff avalanche run around 700' long and 40-50' wide. These were on all aspects and on slopes >30*.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates