Observation Date
3/21/2021
Observer Name
R. Kosinski
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » west porter
Location Name or Route
West Porter Fork
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