Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 42°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 183 m
- Weak Layer
- Ground Interface
- Trigger Type
- Snowmobiler
- Vertical Fall
- 213 m
- Avalanche Type
- Hard Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 183 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- Northwest
- Avalanche Problem
- Persistent Weak Layer
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2987 m
Two snowmobilers trespassing in private terrain triggered this well connected and rather meaty slab. Heavily wind loaded NW aspect at 10,200', the slab broke 600' wide, running 700' vert... man, this thing had SNAP! Breaking to the dirt, I was pretty blown away by the connectivity of this pencil-plus, nearly knife hard slab... a rural, tree snapping repeater for sure.
Blocks of glacial density, almost knife hard snow
Joey standing on 300 cm of debris.
I bet this tree has lots of avalanche stories.
Incident
- Number Caught
- 1
- Number Carried
- 1
- Terrain Summary
- <p> </p> <p>Northwest facing slope at 9,800'. Steep, rocky, starting zone measuring 42 degrees.</p>
- Number Fully Buried
- 1
Details are vague and we didn't get to talk to the riders. In fact, they didn't even report the slide. Instead, we were alerted by a local snowmobile guiding outfit.
Walking up the path, Joey Manship and I did the CSI... (Special Uinta Unit) thing, putting the pieces together of what went down. The two large holes we discover clearly suggest at least a partial human burial, along with nearly a full sled burial.