2011/2012 Utah snow and avalanche conditions

Snurfer · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:31 pm

Nice work fellas - My work gave President's Day off so I went chasing blue sky...
I saw lots of folks tempting deep slabs with bold lines this weekend, hope its worth it :shock:

Low angle at altitude remains fast with facets over supportable crust...

buckchow · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:53 pm

Sorry missed you UTAH; I did try! Your kid and dog are pretty cute. And your tracks as always are hot.

We went up Mt Aire today, a potpourri of facets, crusts, (buried) surface feathers, and powder. Dan got some localized settlement setting the skin track.

mar123 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:55 pm **Posts:** 250

nice ya'll

wasatch surf · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:09 pm

Snurfer wrote:

Nice work fellas - My work gave President's Day off so I went chasing blue sky...

Damn I should have given you a call. I didn't know you would have work off, I miss touring with you dude!

Snurfer · **Posted:** Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:51 am

wasatch surf wrote:

Snurfer wrote:

Nice work fellas - My work gave President's Day off so I went chasing blue sky...

Damn I should have given you a call. I didn't know you would have work off, I miss touring with you dude!

Same here brother. I'm sticking to slide-proof zones from here on out, but it would cool to ride with you. I'll hit you up on my next glade lapping session.

WhitePine · **Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:50 am

BCC - Its getting windy out there. Pretty much everything had a nice wind crust except in the most protected areas and in the tighter trees. We saw rime above 8500 ft and the new snow was very dense and sticky. New snow ranged from 1-5in. Still better than the gym. :thumpsup:

frozone · **Posted:** Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:52 pm

Do any of you Utah peeps dawn patrol anymore? Always looking for a DP partner.

mar123 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:55 pm **Posts:** 250

Headed up Argenta with Wasatch today

breaking trail?? could be ok??

rime

from the cave

bottom 2/3's rode well with creamy snow to wetter snow at bottom, older tracks were all filled in from the winds

overall snow seemed to get worse as you travel higher with rime starting at about 8800 and significant wind affected snow above that...towards the top below the head wall id say winds were gusting up to around 30mph coming over the top of kessler form the south/south east

Snurfer · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:44 am

Wind damage looks burly, is that upslope?...
Heard a similar report out of Porter Fork stating that above 8500' the snow appeared to have been rained on... Would certainly jive with the rime.

You guys using the BD Compactors?

wasatch surf · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:24 pm

Doug- I have the compactors. I give them a 7 out of 10 rating.

Lower mineral today. winds and snow were much better today. 4 inches or so of graupel followed by some light density this morning. slope angles were 30+ I didn't see any cracking, whumping, or fracture lines. lots of wind blow ridges and wind pillows all over the place. I hopped on a few of them but couldn't get them to pop out. Mid elevation is where its at the past few days.

Snurfer · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:46 pm

wasatch surf wrote:

Doug- I have the compactors. I give them a 7 out of 10 rating.

Lower mineral today. winds and snow were much better today. 4 inches or so of graupel followed by some light density this morning. slope angles were 30+ I didn't see any cracking, whumping, or fracture lines. lots of wind blow ridges and wind pillows all over the place. I hopped on a few of them but couldn't get them to pop out. Mid elevation is where its at the past few days.

Right on!!! That lower zone seems fun, although I've only been there in November-ish conditions. For now I continue to ride 25 degree or lower... Although I did get into my first sketchy slope (40-ish) about an hour ago, thing is I was running... Talk about feeling exposed... :shock:

Glad to hear the positive on the compactor's, I really like my treking version and was sort of taken back by all the negativity I'd heard on the compactor. Stoked that you got into some TLT's as well :headbang:

Cheers!

wasatch surf · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:17 pm

Snurfer wrote:

wasatch surf wrote:

Doug- I have the compactors. I give them a 7 out of 10 rating.

Lower mineral today. winds and snow were much better today. 4 inches or so of graupel followed by some light density this morning. slope angles were 30+ I didn't see any cracking, whumping, or fracture lines. lots of wind blow ridges and wind pillows all over the place. I hopped on a few of them but couldn't get them to pop out. Mid elevation is where its at the past few days.

Right on!!! That lower zone seems fun, although I've only been there in November-ish conditions. For now I continue to ride 25 degree or lower... Although I did get into my first sketchy slope (40-ish) about an hour ago, thing is I was running... Talk about feeling exposed... :shock:

Glad to hear the positive on the compactor's, I really like my treking version and was sort of taken back by all the negativity I'd heard on the compactor. Stoked that you got into some TLT's as well :headbang:

Cheers!

yeah that zone is one of my favorites for sure. the funny thing about it is, it is the steepest near the trail and then backs off, a lot of the lines are sub 30 degrees. The TLT's are so rad but now I don't have an excuse for being slow. your new boot and binding set up you posted on the boot page looks pretty sexy as well!

Snurfer · **Posted:** Thu Feb 23, 2012 7:54 pm

FUUUUCK! I know, I know its in the interest of 'pubic' safety, but geesh I was so counting on a line before work :cry:

Feb24: BCC will close for avalanche control at 8:00 am.
Backcountry access will be restricted. Est. open is 9:00 am.
-CanyonAlerts.org

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2011/2012 Utah snow and avalanche conditions

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