Utah Avalanche Center

High thin clouds.

Snowpack is surprisingly solid despite an ECTP22 near the ground. There are very few layers to find in the snowpack. The layer at 90 was settling fast, and we noticed a big difference in our track penetration by the end of the day. In many places this layer is not a concern. In other places, probably places where you are more likely to hit a rock with your snowmobile, the facets near the ground are probably worse.

All our snowpits looked similar and had similar depth. There was widespread natural activity on the layer at 95cm. Both at ridgetops under cornices and at lower non-wind loaded locations. The facets near the ground are likely worse in some places. In all our other snowpits they looked better and were stonger. Overall the snowpack looks pretty good. With tonights snow, it will most like produce more avalanches at the 95cm layer. With such a large load forecasted, there will likely be places where avalanches step down, but this will not be a widespread issue.

Incredibly solid snowpack on south aspect. Dense hard snow. Nothing would break in ECT's.

This pit was dug in the flank of an avalanche. Whats interesting is that the stauchwall (the bottom edge of the slab that released) was very far downslope almost near the deposition area of avalanche debris. There was a similar slide but smaller at a similar aspect and elevation on Peak 10420. That slope tilts a little bit more north. It was triggered by snowboarders mid slope. For this avalanche we don't know how it was triggered.