January 19
White Pine parking-Maybird, Hogum and Coalpit.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
6000-11'000', Angles over 40°, all aspects except south.
Slopes skied:
Hogum 200 turns off the Maybird monolith and Coalpit to the road.
Avalanche activity:
A little cracking from ski cutting shallow recent wind drifts, old wet slides noted coming of the rocks in the lower Hypodermic needle apron and surface sluffing
of recrystalized snow, ski cutting starting zone in Coalpit.
Snow conditions:
Add another inch or two from instability showers in the last day or two. Wind sheltered had around 6" over a settled base. Upper elevations were wind affected with both hard wind crusts and some shallow soft drifts.Another round of rime
was found in exposed upper elevations.
Ski cutting produced only cracking. Drifts were scattered on almost all aspects. Outside of drifted areas, the recent snow has faceted, both on the surface and within the upper few inches. It would sluff on slopes approaching 40°. Shady slopes remain un affected by any daytime heating to 6k.
Weather:
Overcast with occasional partial clearing at times. Light north winds gusting to maybe 15 mph along the highest ridges. Moderate temperatures.
Evaluation:
Stable snow. Surface instabilities posed no problems. Because of the extensive faceted surface and near snow mixed with wind affected crusted snow, bonding of new snow to old surfaces is questionable. Some natural slide activity likely with the forecast 1" water weight load currently forecast by Monday afternoon. However, this should remain within upper layering and settle out quickly.
© wowasatch.com