Observation Date
1/31/2014
Observer Name
Bruce Tremper and Cody Hughes
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine
Location Name or Route
White Pine to 10,000' ridge between White and Red Pine
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Precipitation
Light Snowfall
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Light
Weather Comments
Quite variable, changable weather. Low level moisture rose up the canyon and caused in-and-out fog and light snow at times. Some sunshine at times around mid afternoon.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
12"
New Snow Density
Low
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
Very good snow conditions with a foot of light powder on a mostly supportable base. You could sometimes feel the old tracks and crusts and sometimes punch into bottomless depth hoar in the shallower areas. Snow remained quite good on all aspects and elevations with no apparent wind damage.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Cracking
Collapsing
Rapid Warming
Red Flags Comments
Although there were lots of red flags, the slab was quite soft and manageable in most of the terrain. The snow would move a sluffs and only very occasionally crack as a slab, running on the new/old snow interface on the pre-existing faceted snow on the surface.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Decreasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
It's kind of a grey area between persistent slab and storm snow. Much of the avalanche activity occurred as naturals during the storm as sluffs and occasional soft slabs but since they were running on the old, snow surface, which was faceted snow, I should probably call them persistent slabs. The new snow is quite soft and manageable so it produced mostly class 1 or occasionally class 2 slides and it tended to break at your feet instead of above you. We got several collapses during the day on the faceted snow but no avalanches. We watched our slope steepness, as usual, but I think the steeper lines probably would have been well behaved as well.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Wet Snow
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #2 Comments
Although we did not see any wet avalanches today, nor greenhousing, there were reports of some in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon and Cardiff Fork, among other places. Once we get strong sun on this low density snow, it will want to suff very easily.
Comments
Here is a 3-minute video of me explaing the snowpack structure and avalanche danger in various places in White Pine Canyon of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Video
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Moderate
