Observation Date
1/4/2025
Observer Name
Coyne, Hartnett, Oliver
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Bear Trap
Location Name or Route
Beartrap Fork
Comments
Yay for more powder! Today we toured up Beartrap Fork to ski Beartrap Glades and West Beartrap for some storm day skiing. We started up from SR-190 about noontime after the more intense 3" per hour subsided and had fairly sustained ~1" per hour rates until we arrive back to our car about 4pm. Winds were mostly calm below tree line with gusts to moderate at the exposed ridgelines, resulting in minimal snow transport in wind sheltered locations and wind drifted snow in the more exposed terrain.
We did not experience any collapsing during our travels. Flipping our ski poles over and poking along as we skinned up Beartrap glades, we could feel the weak faceted snow about a full ski pole length down (approx 110cm). With that, makes sense that we didn't get much collapsing.
Small test slopes over 30 degrees did reveal highly sensitive storm snow. One in the approach gully popped out after simply undercutting it with my ski pole (new one for me) pulling out small avalanche on polar terrain with an 8" crown about 15" wide. Unsettled new storm snow from the previous few hours, with a slight density change that had not yet settled out. To be fair to the snowpack, we hadn't given it much time to settle out...
We could feel the same density change on our ski runs, but the slopes weren't steep enough to slide.
We should see the new storm snow settle out in the next 24hrs, however if winds continue to transport the new snow, I suspect the avalanche danger to remain high in exposed terrain.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
High
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
High
Coordinates