Observation Date
1/19/2016
Observer Name
Toddeo
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Reynolds Pk
Location Name or Route
Reynolds
Weather
Sky
Overcast
Wind Direction
Southwest
Wind Speed
Moderate
Weather Comments
Calm in the am, windy in the pm, Lots of transport and new drifts/cornices after 2 pm.
Sun in the am was not enough to impact south facing slopes. Breeze and quick cloud buildup preserved the south aspects.
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
7"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Snow Characteristics Comments
6-8" new on yesterdays skin track, slightly inverted in the upper 3", some localized cracking.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Wind Loading
Cracking
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
Wind loading all afternoon, heavy transport and drifts/ cornice buildup from noon to 3.30 pm. Skied the SE ridge of Reynolds at noon and 3.30. Noon-powder, 3.30 shooting cracks in drifts up to 2", a big change in a short time period.
Collapsing was on the south face of Reynolds and was related to the underlying crust breaking.
Hard to isolate columns on south face of Reynolds most were breaking in what appears to be near surface facets above and below a crust at depths ranging from 12-16". This would have been a major concern if the snow was heating and forming a wet/damp slab.
Felt some hollow faceted areas on the skiers left side of the NE bowl, we snuck in.
Some sluffing mostly minor, see photo below, of note one long running sluff at our 3.30 exit down the SE ridge, ran 200 or so feet, bad light for photos.
one photo of transport below.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
Wind slabs underlaying storm snow are my primary concerning, I anticipate a considerable hazard in wind affected terrain tomorrow. It might have been getting close by time we left this afternoon.
Avalanche Problem #2
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Same
Problem #2 Comments
Facets still lurking, low to moderate hazard.
Comments
No snow profile today, just lots of quick pits mostly on south aspects, a bit concerned about the difficulty in isolating columns with failures above and below the crust.
Photos: Sluff in NE bowl, minor, ski cut also visible.
Photo below: Transport into the NE bowl this afternoon, lost of cracking in the new drifts shooting up to 25'. Note we ski cut both ridges whiles skiing on top of the bowl with no results.
Photo: recent activity in the Swedish corner of the SE bowl of Gobblers, this is a repeater. It seems to me that we are seeing more repeaters than normal this year.
Mostly moderate today, that being said we were very cautious sneaking into the NE bowl and only skied the far skiers left side.
Considerable tomorrow.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Moderate
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
