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Observation: Davenport Hill

Observation Date
1/5/2023
Observer Name
Haffener / Galoob
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Davenport Hill
Location Name or Route
Davenport / East Bowl Pass
Red Flags
Red Flags
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Problem #1 Comments
Moderate S winds gusting to strong at ridgelines. The winds stripped S facing Emmas near ridgelines, creating some sastrugi near the tops of the ridgeline. Some cross loading on SE aspects near ridgelines with wind slabs bonding poorly to MFC below.
N aspects had stubborn wind slabs 1/4' to 1' deep that were not reactive to ski cuts. Below ridgelines on N aspects, wind had pressed the snow and with warming from yesterday and settlement, the snow felt dense, heavy, a bit upside down, and punchy. Sheltered treed north held the best quality snow.
W and E facing aspects looked wind affected with a variety of wind crusts, wind slabs, antitracks, and MFC. Several areas were stripped to ground on the S side of the W ridge between Flanagan's and East Bowl.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wet Snow
Problem #2 Comments
Rain line was noted at around 7000' at 3:30 pm when we drove down LCC. Numerous Loose Wet Ax observed in the steeps below 7000'.
Problem # 3: The PWL is still a problem but becoming harder to trigger. I view the PWL as a very sketchy moderate low liklihood high consequence possibility. You have to find the thin spot where the PWL hasn't rounded, and there is a decent amount of spatial variability in snow depths. For instance, probing along the East Bowl uptrack every 10 ft, I found depths at around 9500' ranging from 150-200 cm with ground even poking through due to wind stripping in areas. Above 9600' the snowpack was consistently 225-280 cm.
Comments
Today we skinned up the Emmas to the top of Silver Fork Headwall. At around 10 am skies varied from partly sunny transitioning to mostly cloudy with S-1 starting at 2 pm, and finally skies became obscured once the snow turned on at 3pm to S1. Any steep S aspects in the Emmas had a decent enough MFC to not be fun to ski. The skiing looked fairly variable in West Bowl from winds so we headed toward East Bowl Pass / Davenport. The Silverfork Headwall was very wind loaded with lots of big cornices growing. We found the wind slabs up on Davenport to be very stubborn and unreactive to ski cuts. We skied the Cabin Run down and skinned up East Bowl Pass. No new slab Ax observed in this zone, but a lot of prior loose dry in the steeps on N aspects. We considered skiing East Bowl but that had a real nice mix of breakable MFC and wind crust, along with patchy wind slab. Instead we skied a lap on the standard East Bowl skinner. Of note, on our way back up the East Bowl skinner the 2nd time we were closer together cresting the ridge and got a small whumph that we believe was isolated and a wind slab. Skied out a thinner breakable MFC along Michigan City.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates