February 9
Area:
Park City ridges
Location:
USA bowl, Scotts bowl, No name, South and West monitor and Willow.
Elevations, slope angles and aspects:
7500’-10400’, angles to 40° all aspects.
Avalanche activity:
Looked at the slides in Scott’s bowl.
Looker's right deep crown
pano of the slides
closer view of the middle slides
looker's left crown
Slopes skied:
Radar Love slide path, No Name, and Will’s Hill.
Snow Surface and conditions:
Mostly crusted surfaces, some breakable, some boilerplate depending on aspect and elevation. There is a zipper melt freeze crust overlying weak facet snow, even in the sheltered areas. Some of the snow under that zipper crust is marginally supportable, especially in the north facing No Name bowl. The stoutest crusts are on the sun exposed. Many of those also have facets under the crust. West facing and some southwest facing are wind scoured to bare ground in places. No cracking, no collapsing. Limited softening later in the day from warming.
Weather:
Mostly cloudy to overcast. Winds from the west along the upper ridges gusting to around 20 mph. Mild temperatures.
Evaluation:
Slides in Scotts bowl were the result of creep on a convex slope because of several days of warm temperatures and wind load last weekend. Looking at the slides and then looking at No Name, South Monitor and West Monitor indicated another wind loaded pocket activated. Similarities in the other bowls were limited at best, without the big load and the convexities. For the present, snow has seized up, with limited potential for avalanche. Hazard would for the most part be dependent on significant snowfall and or wind. Bonding of new snow to the old surface may or not be good. There are a variety of crusts, some quite slick, which may limit new snow bonding. There remains the lingering isolated hazard of active wind drifts over facets.
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