Wasatch Conditions 10-11

[monkeywrenchMoose]

...12-14 inches of snow... last 24 hours

Yeeee!

... Amazing fluff factor ... .5 to .6 inches of water...

Even more yeee!

Temps .... around 0 ... wind chills in the negative teens....

Oh ya. Watch those toes and nose.


It'll be good to get some blower pow, haven't had that in a while.

[Duffman]

Should be a good one today. The wife and I hit The Bird on our way out of SLC yesterday, about 5 inches of fairly light snow down in the AM, with really blower snow refilling throughout the day. Pretty serious wind transport from the upper little cloud / regulator area across the ridge into Mineral, which had great snow all day long, despite the crap visibility at the top. Still in good shape at 2pm when we boogied for the airport, so should be a great day today!

[camlax]

Holy Windy! Damn near got blown over... In willow Heights!

[sfotex]

All I will say about today is I'm glad I had sharp edges.

I think it would take a small nuclear device to get anything to fail in the old snow with these low temps.

[Steven S. Dallas]

I had fun at Snowbird yesterday.

[Mark H]

A tit bit nippely up there today. Wind was sure having its way with that 3% smoke on the ridges. Dust on brutal crust on west aspects. I kicked off a 1-2' deep soft slab high on pink pine. Very sluffy anywhere we went. Snow was so cold it skied kinda slow. But hey, a bluebird powder day is a bluebird powder day.

[The Gnarwhale]

Mark and I had a pretty good idea this would go, so I posted up on a knoll to get photos.







Yes, the snow was on the move today.

[paj]

Alta ended up with about 16" with some deeper areas. The snow was great so I skied lifts today, but everything in upper LCC looks great.

windy up top



car cornice



Before sunset

[shera]

Looks like 12-14 inches of snow fell over the last 24 hours in the high cottonwoods. Amazing fluff factor as Collins plot only shows .5 to .6 inches of water. Very low density snow should make for some really sick blower turns in the trees. Snowfall spiked this am with the passage of an arctic front. Temps above 9k ft are already around 0 with wind chills in the negative teens. Winds are going to move this snow around quite a bit and prob. will blow from the NE later in the day. So...yea...have fun.

SheRa...any word on where that cocktail napkin forecast I wrote up ended up? I think I actually got this storm right.

Your analysis was perfect!!! Like einstein on the back of a napkin. I just left the sheet laying around in the cafe for everyone to read and it is now in the ether somewhere.

Please tell Holly that I want to meet up at 8:15 in the cafe. I'll see her at coffee of course, but a little heads up won't hurt. Planning to ski a slightly different locale.

I'll send you pics as soon as I can, tomorrow will be busy with touring and then off to the casino. Maybe Thurs. Super fun skiing with you guys.

Here's a pic from today - most excellent skiing! Started to feel my inner huck doll wanting to come out and play too

[thisisastickup]

NOAA didn't predict shit for last night, so I slept til nine and went to class today, and boy does it look like I fucked up...

[Dantheman]

Obs from my kitchen window are that ridge top winds have been nuking the last two days. The snow banners on Lone Peak have been huge.

[Trackhead]

Obs from my kitchen window are that ridge top winds have been nuking the last two days. The snow banners on Lone Peak have been huge.

My kitchen window report is the same for the SW Face Twin Peaks, North Thunder, Bells, Crows Foot, Crow's Tail, and Lone Peak.

[ZachClanton]

Easy triggery. Suprisingly enough, wind-kissed blower on the south facing didn't want to go anywhere and we had the only tracks on superior @ 430pm




Ian enjoying the coldest of cold smoke.
Frame grab from Canon 7D video

[springsproject]

^^^Sickness

[Johnny Deep]

Damn good stuff there, Zach!

[PROVO]

Nice tour zach. When you boarders would drop, I could see these massive plumes of snow being ejected skywards.


Superior looking fierce. -50 wind chill at 4pm

It is savage out there

[steeplechamp]

This is from last week before the super cold weather settled in. Got some pow & some variable days. Fun all around.

[powski3]

I'm trying to reconcile the pics of great skiing with the pics of massive plumes of blowing snow. Are things off the ridges staying sheltered enough from the wind destruction?

[CentoUno]

Love that straight line on little superior where you pulled up under the cliff... nice shots

Easy triggery. Suprisingly enough, wind-kissed blower on the south facing didn't want to go anywhere and we had the only tracks on superior @ 430pm




Ian enjoying the coldest of cold smoke.
Frame grab from Canon 7D video

[CentoUno]

Here's a little pow ski edit from yesterday. In it you can see the shot I took off my cell phone that we entered for the contest. Battery on my Nikon froze. Did we could. Like the photo for us...
http://www.facebook.com/video/video....28439&comments

[Alx88]

Alta is for NAZIS

[StraightChuter]

Hehe... I've triggered that little pillow myself a few times and seen others trigger it and/or take a ride from it. It starts out like the "safe" line, but at some point you have to deek to the skier's right, which is when it cuts loose. The gut is usually safer, but you'd never guess that unless you'd seen it in action. 100% windload.

No interaction with the Buxton's at the bottom?

[Mark H]

I'm trying to reconcile the pics of great skiing with the pics of massive plumes of blowing snow. Are things off the ridges staying sheltered enough from the wind destruction?

The reason the plumes are so massive is because it's 3% density snow. If you sneeze hard enough you'll get a faceshot. It's not as windy as it looks and conditions are good off the ridges. Also, since the wind is blowing from an unusual direction (east), when it finishes blowing off all the new snow it then gets into the older deposited snow from the west-northwest winds.

And don't be deceived by all the epic-blower-sickgnar-alltime-pow pics popping up all over the net, it's not nearly as deep in upper LCC as it looks...... It's all smoke and mirrors

[lionelhutz]

The reason the plumes are so massive is because it's 3% density snow. If you sneeze hard enough you'll get a faceshot. It's not as windy as it looks and conditions are good off the ridges. Also, since the wind is blowing from an unusual direction (east), when it finishes blowing off all the new snow it then gets into the older deposited snow from the west-northwest winds.

And don't be deceived by all the epic-blower-sickgnar-alltime-pow pics popping up all over the net, it's not nearly as deep in upper LCC as it looks...... It's all smoke and mirrors

I'll take those smoke and mirrors any day!

[sfotex]

I'll take those smoke and mirrors any day!

Looks better then it rides.
Bruce Tremper observation yesterday:
Riding conditions were not nearly as good as you would think with all the very low density snow. The east and northeast winds messed up most slopes with the exception of some very wind protected areas. Snow was stiff, lurch-and-jerk windslabs on most slopes. West facing is the most wind protected. You can feel the old, hard, crusts below most of the time. Extensive cross-loading on the south facing slopes above Alta, making for some tricky conditions. When it's good, it's good, but harder to find good than you would expect.