February 28
Area:
Park City ridges
Location:
Willow to south Monitor to West Monitor to McDonalds to Beartrap.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7500’-10200’, angles over 35°, all aspects
Avalanche activity:
South Monitor wall to wall
north facing portion is a repeater,
West Monitor south side north facing, also a portion repeating.
That slide was the result of heavy wind load resulting in a cornice fall triggering the slide
portion of the crown showing new snow hard slab and weak layer(well developed facets)
It may have been larger, but we removed most of the cornice line two days ago.
Saw slides from a distance in Main Days
and Banana belt.
Slopes skied:
South Monitor, West Monitor, McDonalds west bowl and Beartrap.
Snow surface and conditions:
4-6” of new dense snow over a variable old surface including light density old snow and a multitude of old crusted surfaces. There is a zipper crust on the surface in scattered locations that was producing shooting cracks of up to an inch deep.We also had a collapse or two in the same location, while ascending McDonalds. Shallow snow over rocks. The area had numerous bomb craters. Snow on the lower elevation exit from Beartrap was crusting from day time heating.
Weather:
Bluebird in the am, with increasing afternoon clouds. Moderate temperatures.
Evaluation:
Large avalanches from the most recent wind and snow indicate a close to overloading snow pack. That may have been it but, the next round, especially if the forecasted winds for Friday materialize will probably have larger and more wide spread activity. I would also have some concerns about upper snow layering as we experienced cracking today and numerous slides have been reported in the Neffs canyon area on the wind crust facet sandwich from just prior to the last week's snowfall.
© wowasatch.com