Observation Date
3/4/2023
Observer Name
Putman, Diaz, Liu, Collins
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Scotties Bowl » Scotties Notch
Location Name or Route
West Scotties Notch Shoulder
Comments
Today we set our sights on Scotties bowl, with the intent to ski the shoulder that faces west into the main white pine drainage in order to avoid the considerable avy danger on wind loaded aspects.
On our way up the west face we did a few pole top probes and discovered punchy snowpack structure. With this result we decided to dig a pit. Though we didn't do a full formal pit, I wanted to share some general obs.
The pit was at 8500ft on a nearly due west aspect. The total snowpack depth here was about 220 cms, though we only dug down 130cms.
What we found, from snow surface to the bottom of our pit:
65 cms of fist to 4 finger strength snow, bisected by a small thin (maybe wind) crust.
a crust
35-40 cms of smallish facets of fist hardness
a layer of 4 finger to 1 finger hardness of rounds
To us, this strong(er) over weak snowpack structure posed a big red flag. I don't think any of us expected 40cms of facets to come out in a pit in that location.
As we turned the compass to the north, that poor snowpack structure disappeared, with hand pits and pole probes revealing relatively uniform density from top to about a meter down.
In treed, wind protected slopes, the snow was well behaved, with only stuffing of the top layers during hard turns.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates