Observation Date
2/8/2014
Observer Name
Sean Zimmerman-Wall
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline
Location Name or Route
Northeast of West Monitor Flats
Weather
Sky
Obscured
Precipitation
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Direction
West
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
The storm intensified on the PC side of the Wasatch Crest throughout the day. Heavy snowfall (>1/hr) and moderate winds.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
5"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
Around 8500 feet the medium density snow was falling on top of the medium density snow from the night before. Did not seem upside down in sheltered terrain. I expect that in exposed terrain quite the opposite was true.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Heavy Snowfall
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
The red flags are flying at full sail and the danger is definitely on the rise. Our AIARE Level 1 course milled around in the flats and stuck to super-low angle terrain. During snowpit excavation we had an audible collapse of the entire meadow. Average slope angle was 14 degrees where we were standing.
HS was 125cm with about 45cm of storm snow sitting on top of a very pronounced rain crust. Below the crust was a myriad of facets to the ground.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
New Snow
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
The structure is poor. Our pit revealed facets from the ground to mid about mid pack. Then a then rime crust topped with buried NSF from some cold clear periods in late January. The pronounced rain crust from the last storm of January was nearly 5cm thick in some places. The snow atop the crust is from our last 9 days of snowfall and is becoming a bit more cohesive. However, our stability test revealed that the slab was not really capable of propagating a fracture on that particular slope (NNW @ 8500ft).
Comments
Due to the increasing hazard we had limited terrain at our disposal. We did not even feel comfortable having our large class in our normal pit location of Snowpit Bowl which pushes 28-30 degrees. I'm sure along the ridge lines the scene was a even more apocalyptic.
Picture 1 is of our course leader doing a shovel tilt test. The test indicated that in the top 30cms of snow most failures occurred on the density change from the previous light density to more medium density snow.
Picture 2 is a student holding a chunk of the rain crust.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
High
Coordinates
