Observation Jan 7th 2011
I have been backcountry skiing Lake Tahoe for the last half of December through early Janurary and apparently I missed one hell of a avalanche cycle, so I went up with my splitboarding buddie to The 3 Temptations located on the most northern end of the Southern Wasatch Range (Deer Creek Drainage). Starting at Tibble Fork Resivor just before dawn we made our way up in the dark cold (which really surprized the F.S. police officer in the parking lot). By 9pm the air temp became warm enough to strip all winter gear and by noon the snow was starting to stick to the skins (no matter how much skin wax we used). While skinning up The 3 Temptations we found 10-15 foot walls from where past avalanches came ripping through sometime in the last 3 weeks. From the top we saw a more recent avalanche on Mount Timpanogos inbetween the main summit and the glacier on the Aspen Grove side of the mountain. While skiing down The 3 Temptations we encountered just about every snow condition imaginible. Only heard one whoomph all day and really things were about as stable as they get out there.
Ron enroute to The 3 Temptations at first light

An avalanche crown on Mt Timpanogos

An avalanche track in The 3 Temptations

Ron splitboarding down The 3 Temptations in the late afternoon

TyeDyeTwins, your picture of the avalanche tracks is from the north (looking south), right? Here's a picture of the same scene taken from the east, near Silver Lake Flats on 12/28. I thought it might be avalanche debris, but wasn't sure - thanks for clearing it up. It looks like this might be the result of several avalanches.

Lots of surface hoar and facets out there. Looks like its going to be a little crazy for the next little while.

Observation Jan. 10th
Very little snow accumulation in the Cascade area. Surface hoar prevelant on W, N, and E. Moderate sun crust on S. Skiing on N aspects was phenomenal. Moderate sluffing on steep N facing, but manageable. The south wasatch has stunning coverage for this time of year.

Bear River Mountains Observation, Steam Mill Peak, January 8-10

Spent the weekend at the Steam Mill yurt, in Hell's Kitchen Canyon, at the base of Steam Mill Peak. Skied the northeast bowl off of Steam Mill Peak's summit, a chute on the east face of Point 9,061 (north of Steam Mill, on the same ridgeline), and a chute on the southeast face of Point 8,761 (north of Point 9,061, on the same ridgeline as Steam Mill). The slope angles of these lines ranged between approximately 38-42 degrees.

Snow conditions were very stable on all of the lines that we skied. We dropped a refrigerator-sized cornice onto the southeast face of Point 8,761 without any effect, and we dropped a car-sized cornice on the northeast bowl of Steam Mill Peak without any effect. Points 9,061 and 8,761 are very exposed, but we did not see any evidence of wind loading on either of the peaks. Sluffing occurred when skiing both chutes, but it was manageable.

There was great snow on all of the lines that we skied! There was a crust on the sun-exposed southern through western aspects, but the northern through southeastern aspects still held fantastic, deep powder, even in areas exposed to the sun. We found prevalent surface hoar in sheltered areas on all aspects, most of which was buried by the 3 inches of snow that we received on the night of January 8th.

EJBean wrote:TyeDyeTwins, your picture of the avalanche tracks is from the north (looking south), right? Here's a picture of the same scene taken from the east, near Silver Lake Flats on 12/28. I thought it might be avalanche debris, but wasn't sure - thanks for clearing it up. It looks like this might be the result of several avalanches.

Both the CENTER and lookers RIGHT gullies in The Three Temptations both had large avalanche walls. The lookers right (the last temptation) was fulll of avalanche debries. Overall it looked like at one time or another there was quite the avalanche cycle while I was Backcountry Skiing Lake Tahoe. Happy Trails EJBean

1/11: Summit Park Area: Skied NE facing terrain, which was a little scratchy, but still very nice. 4-5" of fresh on the lee side. S-facing terrain is dust on crust. The hoar layer is now buried underneath this new, low density snow, which was still struggling to form slab-like characteristics yesterday. I was able to get the new snow to slide on the hoar layer very easily on several test slopes on several aspects and angles.

Another thing on my mind is the snowpack rotting from the bottom up. I've got a ton of snow in my yard for this time of the year, and I noticed yesterday that the bottom of the snowpack around here is turning into Colorado-style sugar at the ground interface. I only think this is going to be an issue where the snowpack is less deep, such as some areas in BCC that didn't get the full taste of those November storms. We'll see.

1/13: Lambs Canyon. No red flags noted, but there was a significant amount of wet activity yesterday on sun-drenched slopes. Lots of rollerballs, etc., some small point releases. Skinned past this pit and skied the same area: http://utahavalanchecenter.org/obs_snow ... on_1122011. Nothing to add.

This is a great analysis of the potential hoar weak layer in the future 'pack:

Part 1: http://utahavalanchecenter.org/analysis ... 1_01112011
Part 2: http://utahavalanchecenter.org/analysis ... 2_01132011

1/15: Spruces > Reynolds > West Desolation > Spruces

West Desolation was pretty cross-loaded with wind, making turning conditions less than stellar. Snow was better in lower protected areas, but was getting pretty damp by 2pm. Low, insulating clouds all day greenhoused the snowpack, making it even damper by the pm. I was able to get the new snow layer to crack and move quite easily on top of the buried hoar layer from Jan 8, but there isn't enough of a slab yet to worry about. I was able to get this layer moving on angles much closer to 30 than 40.

Last week was a big one for me. I've had a winter ascent of Cascade on my list for years. Finally, we climbed and skied the beast! This was last week prior to the rain event, so my observations from that tour are now useless, but how about some nice pics anyway! Feels so good to get a big tour ticked off the wish list!

After failing on a winter ascent of Cascade two prior times (via different routes) I think I found the most efficient and relatively safe route on this successful trip. I'll post a route on SP soon.

Nice work on Cascade, guys. Looks like fun.

1/20: Dawn-patrolled Emma Ridge above Alta, skied south-facing. That rain crust is stout! Great skiing on lower-angled slopes, anything around 35ish was really sluffy and "scrapy." New snow was fast and fun. It was easy to tell that the winds hammered the hell out of higher elevation stuff: big cornices, interesting wind effects, etc. The sun was already cooking south facing stuff by 10am, with noticeable wet snow indicators like rollerballs. More snow on the way...

1/21: Skied protected trees in Beartrap, west-facing. Still some great snow despite settlement about a hundred feet or so off the ridgetops (above there was wind-scoured, exposing the rain crust slide-for-life). Sun-drenched slopes took both barrels from the sun today. I'm thinking about the water that percolated through the snowpack today lubricating the the interface between the new snow and the rain crust. South-facing snow was getting really manky and difficult to ski by the late pm. I found the rain crust to be stout and strong almost everywhere, except on ridgetops that got hammered by wind. Thermal inversion today, with temps at 32 near the bottom of BCC and up to 40 degrees up higher, adding to the damage to the snowpack where the sun was hitting it up higher.

This photo is taken from the ridge between Beartrap and Willow Forks. You can see the rain crust slide-for-life in the foreground. Ouch.

1-21: I'll concur on the south facing aspect, really hard and brittle. Seemed most of the other aspects were decent. Did a quick tour up Peak 10,420 and Tri-County this morning. Cold and cloudy during the earlier hours, then clearing up around noon. T-shirt stylz once getting out of the clouds and winds up higher.

Top of 10,420:



Try-County:



Weather clearing up later on:

Here's a photo from 1/20 of the Glide Cracks in Cardiac: