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Observation: Gold Basin

Observation Date
3/21/2025
Observer Name
Tim Matthews, Jason Ramsdell
Region
Moab » Gold Basin
Location Name or Route
Gold Basin, Tele Gold, Tele Heaven
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
Forecast verified today. Clouds went from few to broken as the morning turned into the afternoon. Calm to light winds out of the NW becoming W. At times you could see the tops of the trees moving, and hear the wind in the high alpine, but near tree line and below was never more than light. No snow was observed blowing in any locations. Temps stayed in the mid 30's, but with very little wind to help cool the snow surface the strong spring sun softened crusts on the solars by afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Dense Loose
Wind Crust
Melt-Freeze Crust
Damp
Snow Characteristics Comments
The strong March sun is doing what it does. Solar aspects have gone through a few melt freeze cycles now since the last storm on Tuesday. Solars are becoming damp by afternoon, and refreezing overnight. The above treeline alpine terrain has taken a massive hit from the winds, and is scoured in areas to the rock, but loaded in other areas. Finally, sheltered near and below treeline terrain on the N and NE is still holing cold dry powder snow.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Didn't dig into the snow today, but probed a few areas to see how deeply buried the Valentine's facet crust facet layer is after Tuesday's 12" of storm snow. It's now down about 80-90cm. Last weekend it was down about 65cm and was still producing propagation results in ECT's. I'll be a bit more confident with this layer after it's well below a meter deep, if that ever happens, or it's in the river.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
Didn't observe any transport of snow today. Solar aspects are heavily crusted, or scoured now, and there's very little loose snow that could blow around and form slabs. If the winds blow out of the N, or E it's possible you could form slabs on a very slick bed surface.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
The glaring red flags of this problem have just about vanished, but the poor structure is still present, and better to not temp fate. W-N-E remain the most suspect NTL and above. Seems like only 1 avalanche that went into old snow on Pilot Mt was reported post Tuesday's storm, and that was a repeater. I think we need some big water amounts to really test the 2 PWL layers in snowpack.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
Coordinates