Observation Date
12/20/2021
Observer Name
Grainger, Dromgoole
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » Little Water
Location Name or Route
Little Water Peak
Comments
The weak faceted pre-December 9th layer along this part of Millcreek/BCC has had many connected slab results over last weekend, some natural but most remote skier-triggers along the ridge.
The long propagation along the West Deso ridge and the 2 different 1000'+ pieces along Sheep Sh*t Ridge show pronounced the November faceting and the less-disrupted terrain allows these collapses and slides to connect.
This HS 100cm pit ~9350' NW-facing off Little Water Peak showed faceted layers on both sides of a deteriorating Nov. M/F crust with a solid slab on top. Sudden Planar ECT failure on the uppermost facets (pic 2 saw marking), same as all slides from the last 4 days.
What's looking up:
-Many large slopes have collapsed and/or avalanched and may have the ability to heal with Thursday's storm if facets were removed enough.
What's not:
-Many avalanche paths didn't run or fully propagate and in large slope sections still remain in tact. With this week's storm we may see some full-blown dragons wake up once that Dec. 9 facet interface reaches critical mass. Worse is any NW-E slopes that support this next water weight will be large, destructive slabs when people find trigger points.
-Some slopes that have avalanched have left hard, planar bed surfaces with developed facets in tact on top. Repeater potential is there.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates