From the western uintas forecast.
"On Friday, Grant and I specifically went hunting for weak snow on the southern half of the range to see how it would react to all the added weight of the storm. Ted did the same on the North Slope. (Click here for a brief snowpack tutorial). Our suspicions were confirmed with big red flag warning signs like shooting cracks and booming collapses. As a matter of fact, Grant and I were able to collapse a low angle, 30 degree slope from quite a distance, initiating cracks up to 200’ away. The immediate culprit is the weak near surface facets formed during the December dry spell and our snowpit stability tests reveal this persistent buried weak layer as well. These sugary crystals are buried and preserved in the mid portion of our snowpack and life has been good without any additional weight bearing down on top of them. Essentially they’ve been partying for nearly a month with no worries at all. Now it’s hangover time and they’re reeling from the effects of a heavy dose of fresh snow and strong winds. Many steep slopes throughout the range hang in the balance, just waiting for a rider to come along and reawaken this weak layer. These are exactly the type of snowpack conditions that lead to most fatal avalanche accidents in the western Uinta Mountains. There’s no reason to pull on the dogs tail and second guess the snow stability pattern today. We have a dangerous snowpack and avalanches triggered today can break into weak snow near the ground, resulting in a deep and unsurvivable slide."
