Check out our Holiday Auction - Sign Up for the Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW)
Ad
The National Forest Service Logo
icon-add Observation
Forecasts
Logan Ogden Salt Lake Provo Uintas Skyline Moab Abajos Weather Archives How to read the forecast
Observations & Avalanches
Submit Observation Observations Explorer All Observations Avalanches Fatalities Place Names Map Archives
Education
Avalanche Awareness Develop Skills On-Snow Courses Resources and Tutorials
Events
Store
About
Contact Who we are Core Values Staff Board of Directors Past Forecasters Sponsors Annual Reports Sign In
Blog
icon-add Observation
Donate / Join

Observation: Park City Ski Resort

Observation Date
3/24/2022
Observer Name
Hardesty, Saurer, Young
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ski Resort
Location Name or Route
Pinecone ridge
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Light
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Red Flags
Red Flags
Rapid Warming
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
See below.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
Looking at structure ahead of the warm-up. The saying is that if you have depth hoar or facets that continue to trouble you during the winter, watch out during the big warm-up.
Still with this structure, Robby Young got a PST30/100 on the drought facets 40 cm down. Upper layers were not dry.
Robby Young comments: Curiosity on all solars over the next couple days, but really most interested in east and west aspects where weaker/larger FC exists. I’d be more concerned if they were wet, rather than just moist today, but tomorrow is a new day.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wet Snow
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
Forecasting wet snow is difficult, especially when looking for wet slabs and glide avalanches.
In the photo below, I poured Kook-Aid down into the snowpack on an east facing slope at 9650' along the PC ridgeline. The Kool-Aid represents free water moving and pooling at suspect interfaces. You'll see the pink water pooling along crust and facet/crust interfaces as denoted by the photo/blue lines.
In their 2004 ISSW paper, Chris Lundy and Blase Reardon talked about needing the following for wet slabs:
Water factory to introduce water into the layers - we have this from last weekend's small storm.
Slab - this is all the snow after the drought.
Funny Business - this is the Jan/Feb PWL facets, along with crust interfaces.
Interestingly enough, Reardon/Lundy said that in their work in Montana, even though water pooled above crusts, in the 03/05 wet cycles in Glacier NP, it was below the crusts at the facet/crust interface where the wet slabs fractured.
Comments
Thanks much for the hospitality of Park City ski patrol and Mark Saurer and Robby Young in particular.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates