Observation Date
12/26/2025
Observer Name
Amblers
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Guardsman Pass area
Location Name or Route
Guardsmans Pass
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Strong
Weather Comments
Strong winds along the ridges rapidly moving new snow, graupel hastily scuttling along the stout rain crust. Temps seemed to dip and climb throughout the morning. Light to moderate snowfall leaving a little over an inch of new snow in wind protected areas - mostly graupel and rather dense.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
We felt and heard a couple of significant collapses as we walked through the woods at 9300'. The crust bridged my weight until another person or two joined the meadow and it all whumphed below our feet. Ominous.
Wind loading was quite active and had already blown some pockets up to 8+" deep by mid morning. Wind slabs starting to form on the PC ridge. In the woods by lower Scott's Backdoor meadows (~9300') there was about a foot of snow, damp to the ground except for some drier faceted snow just below the stout ice crust.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Problem #1 Comments
Significant collapses and a stout crust make me wary of what's to come with a large load.
Comments
Here's Kate sampling the dust on crust and POV looking towards Scott hill from Tri County. We left around noon with an inch of snow over the crust which was mostly supportable. With the dusting and hardening of crusts, todays conditions were downright enjoyable.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Low
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
None
