February 12
Park City ridges
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7500-10000', angles over 35°, all aspects
Avalanche activity:
No recent activity. A large cornice first observed on February 1, finally dropped,
breaking into chunks, sluffing out surrounding snow and depositing debris at the base of the upper run out. Several other cornice falls were observed in the Monitors, with minimal results.
Slopes skied:
South Monitor east facing, West Monitor northeast facing and south facing into Willow Heights.
Snow conditions:
South facing was crusted, gradually melting, with sun and daytime heating. Crusts softened enough to provide a narrow window of good snow cone snow skiing in the afternoon. Wind crusts were widespread on other aspects, west scoured and east drifted. There were a few patches of wind pack powder up high and settled dense powder in sheltered locations.
Riming from continued west winds
was observed near west facing ridges. Surface hoar was also observed
at all elevations, attaching itself to the rime in places. Much of the hoar melted during the day.with the mild temperatures.
Weather:
Bluebird, with scattered mid level clouds hanging around for much of the day. Winds increased a little in the afternoon from the west, gusting to around 15 mph. Mild temperatures.
Evaluation:
Stable snow. Large cornices could fall with the increased creep from heating. Forecast new snow has a good chance of bonding to old surface, dependent on temperatures at onset. Future instabilities would be dependent on that bonding and on the higher winds currently forecast, with frontal passage.
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