Big Meadow, back to old favorite

High winds first from the south on Sunday, then out of the north Sun night have had their way on the Plateau. We cleared 20 cm (8") off the Miller Flats board and total read 140 cm (55"). I measured 190 cm (75") up on the Big Meadow.
Of that 8" on the board, 6.5" was graupel capped with broken stellars. This combination was widespread in sheltered areas (see pit) but winds have done their thing on anything exposed. Skiing was almost like groomed ski runs with hard slab on hard slab on ..... You get the idea.
In sheltered areas snow capping new has settled on top of graupel and had a inverted spongy feel. In areas that wind have not blown the snow away I did find cornices that would crack and propagate, but remained shallow and confined to new snow from Sun night.
Typical for Big Meadow, layering between wind slabs and graupel layers were varied and in sandwiches. The good news is that layering has gained strength and will continue to with warming temps.
We saw no natural activity, but visibility was limited. Summit ridge was socked in off and on, but did see large cornices rebuilt on Wedding Ring Ridge with no activity in that area. With so much varied wind, wouldn't camp out beneath them, but judging from wind exposed terrain, these may be welded in place.
On and off graupel shower with spots of sunshine off summit ridges, 10-15 mph winds only at higher terrain. With warming trend, big cornices nothing I would mess with.

Sking is sheltered areas north facing on exit was best we had all tour.

Cherry Creek, Cache Valley

Ended up in Logan area this weekend, skiing first around Beaver Mountain Area, dust on crust, then came back down to low elevation just above inversion level in Cache Valley. Hiked up ridgeline out of Cherry Creek canyon above Richmond to around 7000' just out of inversion level. Wondering about lower elevation snowpack that has been in inversion for a long time, but daytime heating has affected snow even here. South facing had nasty breakable crust and even north facing had 1" wind crust that you had to punch through to make turns. Snow just underneath these crusts has weakened, faceting, and could be a problem with significant load. Below that much stronger snow. Total depth at 7000' of 36" on northern aspects and less than a foot on wind fetches south facing.
Skiing was near survival square pedal jump turns with some submerged rocks for seasoning. Decided an exit shot out frozen snomobile tracks was slightly better choice than another lap off ridge.

Could really feel inversion as we decended into valley, hopefully next forecasted storm will clear air and bring new snow

Presidents Day, February 18, 2008

Steve and I tried Ephriam canyon today, Bluebell and adjacent slopes were all mucked up by snomobiles, so we tried the next drainage south, South Willow Creek. We found 1000'+ shots Steve named the "89 chutes" because you can see them from Highway 89. Very sheltered due north facing 10,000' down to 8900'. Fairly confident with old snowpack, poked down 3-4' and confirmed very strong pack. Current and future problem will be Thursdays new snow that has settled to 8" and is rotting away. Sun has been busy on south facing creating breakable crust sandwiches we stayed off. Total pack 170 cm (67") at 9900'. Steeper roll-overs surface snow would sluff with ski cut, but skiing was excellant.
No natural activity noted, even in north facing 50+ degree slopes above Great Basin Experimental Station, http://www.utahheritage.com/press_releases/2005/pr-05-23-2005.htm . Temps have remained cool enough that snow is still very cold in sheltered areas of canyon, but today as we exited into sunny flats at bottom was turning to encyclopedia snow.
Sunny cool day with no wind in area we were in. Exit shot back to snowmachines was unbelievable long, one of the longest sustained runs I have skiied on the Plateau.

Monday February 11, 2008 Electric Bowl

will see drew's semi trailer and raise him a dozen boxcars. after our tour today (get to that later) we drove over the summit at 2:30 and found one of the biggest slides i have seen on wedding ring ridge. this could not be over a day old, possibly from today. we took a look around and could see no activity in the vicinity, the place was deserted, and over on the kiting side of the ridge, a few kiters and one truck with a small trailer was parked, but every one on that side was obilvious to any accident. cannot say if this was a natural or human caused today or possibly yesterday. so many high marks in the area, some covered by debris, could not determine. bad feeling not knowing what had occurred, but could not justify calling out the calvary without more information. this was a bonecrusher that ran down through small aspens on flatter terrain.
a section of cornice had calved off the ridge, 400'+ long and brought out other hard slabs that i could see had stepped down another layer into storm snow from two weeks ago on lookers left and right. fridge sided chunks apparent down in low angle terrain in aspens. (see pic). no lack of testing by snowmobile existed everywhere else with no other activity seen. snow has settled out tremendously and gained very good strength elsewhere. certainly raised my hackles up a full notch for east facing large cornice terrain, which is prevalent on summit ridges

we went looking for sheltered north facing and ended up in electric bowl. impressive wind damage everywhere, significant winds from west reported on fri and sat with sastrugi the size of moguls on south through nw aspects. north through ne sheltered snow is gaining strength well and did not bother digging down beneath the top couple of layers. 4-5 mm surface hoar growing in sheltered areas made for loud powder turns and would sluff in steeper terrain. before the ride over the summit, cornice kicks resulting in various kitchen appliance sized chunks up to vw bug sized pieces but not triggering anything on slopes below. that feeling changed when we saw wedding ring ridge. slope angles at 35 or so produced no settling, cracking, or sign of instability (see pit profile).

snow still punchy and inverted especially where wind damaged (which is everywhere). in sheltered areas has settled out, but punchy enough to not qualify as hero snow, but fun skiing. penetrating 6"-8" in turns, snow was creamy until you changed aspects other than n or ne. nw had survivor wind pack, east and south 1" breakable sun crust underneath surface hoar. furn speigel (sp?) widespread on southern aspects. mostly sunny with wsw winds at 15-20 mph on summit ridges and getting down into all but the most protected terrain. east facing uptrack filled up with fractured surface hoar making it slick.

deep snow not a limiting factor and access to all terrain much easier now, would expect snowmobiles getting into all sorts of areas, ie, they had already accessed skiers right side of big meadow climbing straight up.

nice little snowcave built at bottom of uptrack, someone has been having alot of fun

February 1, 2008, the snow continues

moderate snow most of the day, westerly, sw winds 15-20 all day and cotton ball visibility above 9000 (see dashboard pic). not a good picture taking or avi looky day. wind has been at work all week, cornices i could see and felt like approaching were sensitive to a stomp, cracked back and broke out 2'-3' deep with big chunks peeling away and starting small soft slabs beneath. i am sure area has been through more that one natural cycle, is reloaded. i can imagine huge cornices that will be sensitive to machine or skiers weight based on what i did see. stomping around as they got bigger, they are upside down and i could punch down to my hip before common sense had me back off. didn't feel like winter gymnastics with refrigerators. could tell wednesday storm snow is wind damaged anywhere it was exposed, even on flats at lower ridgelines. steve felt only the mega-modified machines could be able to get into steeper terrain, so that may keep them safe. not a snow kiting day for sure, skiied more sheltered aspen groves below 9000', hardly could make turns in 20+", had to keep them pointed downhill, couple sluffs on steep breakovers. visibility never improved. last pic a reminder to take your shovel with you to the pit toilet. mf crust we found on interval board found in flats around miller flats trailhead and i would imagine would be prevelant on all east facing terrain that sun could reach. must have formed from sun and warmer temps tuesday?