First Trip 2008-2009

First trip this year, snowfall has not been "stellar", 30 cm on Miller Flats snowstake, even less at Mammoth/Cottonwood snotel. Not enough for much recreation, but the never resting SW winds have loaded E/NE ridge-top starting zones. Natural activity at the Big Drift begged investigation, also next slope just east that failed but did not have sufficient steepness to overcome stauch-wall (see pic). As we walked the ridge, fracture lines to the ground ran 30'-40'+ back onto almost flat terrain and had relieved the stored energy. Toured around GE hill and found similar evidence, would suspect similar terrain has gone through failure without producing more slides. SW fetches are almost cleared of snow by wind, north sheltered areas harboring large grained facets at the ground, not that unusual for the plateau, more sheltered snow is shallow but settling out. Lots of jumping would could knock out some remaining hangfire, but is pretty stubborn.

Dust on the corn

Steve and I went searching for corn and found excellent conditions on ENE facing 10000' elevation bliss in what we will call Little Left Fork of Staker Canyon Bowl. Milford Fire dust has covered the Plateau and collected just where transported snow would land in similar SW wind conditions creating a graphic example of wind transport (see pic with brown snow just beyond ridgelines). Our timing was excellent as temps dropped below freezing at noon yesterday and were in the teens overnight setting up snow into a layercake crust that was near 1o" thick. Light winds and clear skies greeted us and we made 3 laps on 40+ steeps with carvy corn. Made our escape out by noon and eyeballed some more similar terrain in Bennett Canyon to the south and in the next drainage beyond Bennett. When will it ever end? so much snow and so little time.

Google image is looking south into Bowl.

Wedding Ridge Ridge had shed a chunk of cornice in yesterdays heating, but lots remain on summit ridges across the Plateau.

Trailer (single wide) Court Canyon April 12, 2008

Wanting to beat the big heat-up, we picked on an old time favorite for post-lift season at Sundance. Trailer Court canyon is a steep NE facing bowl that eventually comes out on the Provo Canyon floor at the UDOT sheds. There used to be a trailer court at the bottom, hence the name. I thought we were a little early for great corn but found supportable crust on main ridgeline below cellular tower on our first run, so we decided to center punch the bowl. The due NE facing bowl was breakable dinner plate crust you could power through, but less than stellar conditions. Carey changed aspect a little more N and found more manageable conditions, but I had to wrench it out and stay in the fall line, aesthetics I guess. Further down we were able to cross into the next drainage and stay further north and conditions improved. Once we were in the bottom of the canyon we were on old debris and temps had been inverted producing very nice corn conditions for the remainder of the ski out. Debris from multiple paths had filled the bottom full and we were able to ski down 3/4 of the way and hike with a bit of bush-whacking for 20 minutes out the bottom. The old trail has overgrown quite a bit from what I remember, but I haven't skied this for at least a dozen years. When people were still living in the trailers that are long gone, the trail received a bit of traffic and was much better defined. This is worth doing again in the next week after a few more melt-freeze cycle. This was a great early morning tour and we were back to the car by 1000.

March goes out like a Lion!

Followed tail end of storm to Plateau this morning, the longest commute I have ever had. Billie's Mountain was a minefield of stuck and jack-knifed semis, but I was able to thread the needle and sneak by. This was well worth the drive, 12' new snow sitting on indestructable mf crust on all aspects. We decided last night to visit Electric Bowl, and that was a good choice. Weather was overcast with light snow and light winds when we arrived. By the time we left NW winds had increased and started transporting snow onto east facing leeward slopes, the sun was shining, and the sky was clear. Questionable bond of new snow to old surface because snow did not start falling in Sanpete County until sometime Sunday afternoon, and cold temps on Fri and Saturday had already set up crusts. As we thought, sluffing on steeper slopes started our day, and first steep run I entrained enough snow to bring out fragile soft slab in new snow that had a hard time propagating far, 12' X 20' (See before Pic). Skied next run on lower angle slopes with minimal sluffing. My hypothesis was that as weather cleared and new snow got some time to settle and a little sun on it, slab would gain strength faster that new snow old snow bond. Final run supported hypothesis (see after Pic). Steve triggered another soft slab 12' x 100' wide that got deep enough he wisely exited right, and Diane also triggered another soft slab a little smaller on a ski cut. Based on what we saw today, and with wind picking up, things are most likely very sensitive off exposed ridgelines on any loaded steep slope. Other than a few small sluffs on very steep slopes, no natural activity was seen on the way home.
Chopped out crust layers to check for weaknesses within that layer, and could not get it to fail. new snow will settle and poor bond may improve with time, but wonder about tomorrows warming. Hard to tell it is the first of April, keep it coming