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Observation: Gold Hill

Observation Date
3/20/2025
Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Region
Uintas » Gold Hill
Location Name or Route
Gold Hill
Weather
Sky
Broken
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Partly sunny skies early, more broken with mostly cloudy weather and a few snow flurries this afternoon. The west winds were not too bad in my travels.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Snow conditions are holding up quite well, except for the south facing slopes where a melt freeze crust was a bit stout. Settled powder and a thin crust on east facing terrain was still good riding and turning.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Red Flags Comments
Just some isolated shallow wind slabs on the exposed ridges, but I was not seeing a lot of snow moving around overall. Not much else in the red flag department from my vantage point in Gold Hill today.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
The winds from the west and southwest were blowing today as I could hear it moving through the trees, but I was not seeing a lot of fresh wind drifting. I did tease out a small shallow wind slab right along the exposed ridge near Gold Hill Pass and I would think there are isolated areas with some sensitive wind drifted snow on the leeward side of the ridge lines.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
No avalanche activity that I observed into old snow from the recent storm.
Comments
A shallow 8-10" fresh wind slab along the Gold Hill ridge that I was able to trigger on a very small break over. I was not observing a lot of snow transport, but possibly there are isolated places where this set up was going on today.
A quick pit on this east facing slope in Gold Hill showing a couple of the recent crust layers, but I was not finding any weak snow issues around them. My column tests just smashed down with progressively harder hits.
Looked like some weather was moving in over the higher terrain further up the highway, there was just a few light snow flurries while I was out.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates