UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Observation: Mineral Fork

Observation Date
12/4/2022
Observer Name
T Diegel
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mineral Fork
Location Name or Route
Mineral fork
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Big warmup today. The warm before the storm.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments
Wow, challenging snowpack, as most of us know. But we got an even-more vivid example of it today. Hasty pit indicated a very solid block that wouldn't even isolate before it popped off with energy, and we had plenty of small whoomphs. And then the snow got damp and heavy to the point of rollerballs, so it was hard to tell which was the most likely culprit of a slide: slab on PWL or loose wet?!?! And now we got a bit more snow/water weight coming in on top of it. I'm a simple guy, and this snowpack is complicated enough to kinda make my head spin, so just trying to mitigate it by keeping slope angles down and minimize exposure to those little weird spots above and to the sides of where we skin/ski. But despite the warmup, the snow surface above about 8500 stayed fairly fast and fun, and least until early afternoon (may have deteriorated after that).
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates