Observation Date
3/24/2024
Observer Name
Nauman, Darling, Ament
Region
Moab
Location Name or Route
Lone Pine
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Moderate Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
The day was consistently stormy with a noticeable temperature drop presumably as the front passed. There was clearly some orographic dynamics going on as the moment we topped the first moraine in Middle Cirque, the vis dropped and the wind picked up. I suspect that the Pre-Laurel weather station has had some rime as we had pretty strong winds (15-30 mph) during both of our climbs into middle cirque and there was a decent bit of wind transport. There was 2-3 inches of snow on our cars when we returned to the lot and I suspect like 7-8" fell in total at ~11000', but it was hard to tell up there with the wind.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
The snow was pretty fun and by the end of our tour was 6"+. We poked around on our way up at the old snow interface and it's pretty variable. The southfaces were hard underneathe, but not scratchy and we were thinking about skiing them because N faces had a punchy old crust underneathe. Then above timberline things felt much softer underneathe, but only on direct N aspects with some slope gradient, so we decided to find a moderate north aspect out of the wind.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Red Flags Comments
When we got into Middle Cirque, we had some periods of heavy snow and a good bit of wind. As I approached Lone Pine from the moraine side I looked over at the couloir above LP and saw a wind/storm slab coming down that made me jump a bit as it was ~100-200' wide. However, it moved slow, and did not run full path. I'm pretty sure this was triggered by wind loading in the upper reaches of the couloir (photo below), but it was hard to see much.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Same
Problem #1 Comments
The new snow is being transported by the wind and creating fresh reactive slabs. We'll see what the wind does tonight, but there will probably be some decent sized reactive slabs tomorrow in the alpine.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
The new snow was pretty sluffy, but didn't really set up into a slab yet. We weren't too worried about it, but it did slide today. I'm guess there will be a lot of releases out of the steeper terrain today.
Comments
Had to do some filtering as the light was really tough today. I would call this a D1 as it moved slow, was really shallow, and the debris were actually skiable. Nate did find some denser old snow in the debris, but nothing propagated. However, it was hard to really get eyes on the start zone.
Nate ripping the edge of lower Lone Pine. He is even with the bottom of the debris from the slide - you can see that it did not even come close to running full path.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates
