Observation: Silver/Days

Observation Date
3/5/2024
Observer Name
T Diegel, P Diegel, Patterson, Wall
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver/Days
Location Name or Route
Emmas, Silver, Days
Weather
Sky
Broken
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
South
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
some nice convective snow showers added another coupla inches, but the dastardly afternoon sun broke through a coupla times and made the south slopes a bit heavy. There will be at least a zipper on the southies in the morning.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Characteristics Comments
Going up the Emmas in the morning was interesting; between the riblets and adjacent gullies we got near-ice, a foot+ of unconsolidated nice powder on top of the crust, and some well-defined slab that slid disturbingly easily on a layer above the crust (facets?). But these varied within tens of feet so there was no big consistent slab, so we felt okay carrying on upwards.
The northerlies were more consistent without the slab and the crust below, and even with some wind-loading over the last coupla days and this morning we had no cracking or movement aside from a few sluffs in the steepest terrain. We started on pretty mellow terrain and gradually got steeper over the course of the day after gaining more confidence with quick hand pits, ski cuts, etc and our fellow slope testers were given'er harder in fairly exposed terrain with no evidence of anything more than sluffs.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Low
Coordinates