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Observation: Michigan City

Observation Date
1/12/2025
Observer Name
Derek DeBruin
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Grizzly Gulch » Michigan City
Location Name or Route
Little Cottonwood Canyon, Michigan City
Weather
Weather Comments
Socked in early and mostly cloudy until mid afternoon. Light northerly wind at upper ridgelines, calm below this. S- to S1 stellars in the upper elevations much of the day.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Characteristics Comments
Soft snow falling on top of soft snow. Great coverage and riding conditions through knee to thigh deep low-density fresh. Solar aspects have a thin (1cm at most) unsupportive sun crust beneath the storm snow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Red Flags Comments
Obviously lots of new snow. Noted no cracking or collapsing in our travels today. Did see what I suspect was a natural wind slab avalanche in Cardiac Bowl (see separate obs). Small cornices were visible at high ridgelines, and cross loading of gullies and ridges led to some reasonably stiff wind lips, but no worrisome reactivity. Snow transport was occurring where wind was present, but below about 9500ft winds were pretty calm. Stomped on a couple test slopes on both solars and polars with no soft slab reactions. The biggest avalanche problem seemed to be dry loose in steep terrain.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
None
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
Coordinates