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^^^ wasn't the best place to dig a pit but had to work with what I had. It was my first look at a true east face so I'm thinking were just dealing with two different weak layers. What's interesting to me is on N facing I found the facets on the ground to be large and 1 finger hard. The collapsing and shearing I got was limited to the light crust collapsing and failing on the small facets sitting on top of the stout crust. Whereas on the E face I dug yesterday the collapsing and shearing was on the small grained faceted shit show at the bottom, fist hard. Both weak layers and persistent. I'm interested to see how they set up. In my opinion weight is our best friend. 2 maybe 3 years ago we had a similar snowpack, I assumed that overtime the new snow bridged over the pre-existing weak layer, in fact I was talking to a snowbird ski patroller and he made the same comment. But touring with Brett last year he said it was less a bridging and more the weight over time hardening the weak layer, not so much a bridging effect. I'm curious to hear from other guys what there finding near the ground on those two aspects. If your lucky to not be a slave to the man and get out this week take a look for me at the facets near the ground on E facing compared to N facing. Take care be safe.

more stoke please...

11/16 beautiful day today in Mill D...no instabilities noticed

dense creamy pow

fun turns

the sky was on fire

^^ Sweet turns! ^^

i'm back

TLP today, winds were blowing hard from the w temps in the 30's

North Facing pit, pretty well bonded. simple compression test resulted in no failures. sun and wind have helped create a more uniform snowpack in the top 14" . Couldn't find any 'obvious' crust layers. However there were several inches of faceted rotten snow at ground level (old news, long lasting problem), will be interesting to see what happens with projected snow totals this weekend. More on the blog.

This guy Trent is a splitter, he did a really cool video showing the current snowpack with a full propogation ECT. I think he gets on here once in a while. He's also spoke at my school with the "know before you go" program. Super cool program I could have used in highschool when I would go out and build kickers and ride lines with no idea what an avalanche was. Really cool video, I think I'll show my students.
http://utahavalanchecenter.org/observat ... l_11182011

thanks for the vid Utah...

dug a pit on this slope, totally different snowpack over here, no crust or facets except at the very bottom which were frozen solid...snowpack seemed pretty bomber where we were at, and right side up...got a crappy shear at about 13 from where the new snow is sitting on the old, no slabs or propagation...no instabilities noticed




breakin my heart

Nice pictures Mar123... except for the last one! Bummer! I had a board do that last year, it broke in the same spot, preseason, from trying to step over a small stream.

Seems like all those areas are riding very nicely, and once again, probably not the same crowds as in LCC.

^^^^^Bummer Dave. Was checking out your latest artwork, looking good.

I checked out the same E. facing aspect I dug my pit on last week, curious to see how things have set up in the last week. It seems like we go through this cycle every year, so it's interesting for me to dork out on snow why we wait for a decent base to start getting into some of the good zones. For how shitty the snow structure was last week it sure has set up fast.
11/19/12 around 10k E. Facing.

The bottom 12 was bomber, this little column was suctioned to the ground. Stark contrast to the faceted shit show I found last week.

I also got to poke around a N facing aspect 9,500 or so. Found similar results had to dig two to make sure.

I know the zone Trent dug his pit well. It's a very well protected bowl, the type of place that see's very little sun all day. It's hard to get a beautiful shear like his on an ECT, I think he was in the cash money zone, but I just wasn't finding that snow structure where I was. So is the game I guess.

It's been great seeing you all getting out and posting obs. Thanks for sharing the info.
The only split I have right now is my 195 and I'm unwilling to sacrifice it (or my body) to the early season conditions, so nothing to report.

BUT... something in this mornings Avy report caught my eye and I wonder if any of you know more about it?

WTF is a snow cat doing in upper Silver Fork?

Was thinking about it....

but...

New Snow, Alone, Low Vis, Getting Late....Another Day

Found some great snow yesterday in upper BCC before the sun got to it. Whole lot of surface hoar growing up there right now.
The forecast is not looking to promising for more snow at the moment...

^^^^^Beautiful.

Been sticking to this one rock free run and then poking my head in on this steep e facing/slight NE facing slope. It's been interesting to observe the ever changing snowpack. It's gone from faceted shit show, to on the mend and then checked in again yesterday to find a 4 inch pencil hard crust at the bottom with facets ontop.

Winds were nuking. Happy Holidays

^^^yes, sick photo neil !!!

went to check out another zone today










snow depth apx 24"-30" on North facing aspects...winds were gusting to about 60 on the ridges

no october snow found....elevation 9k and below