Quick report
- Slope Angle
- 37°
Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 53 m
- Trigger Type
- Skier
- Vertical Fall
- 137 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 30 cm
- Trigger Detail
- Unintentionally Triggered
- Start Zone Aspect
- South
- Start Zone Elevation
- 3078 m
Remote triggered from about 50 ft away.
Forecaster Note: UDOT LCC forecaster Chris Covington and I went to look at the slide today and found the that the failure plane was .5mm rounds and a few 1mm rounding facets above a 2" thick melt freeze crust. The avalanche collapsed the variable rime/mf crust (2cm above the mf crust). One could pass this off as a typical crust/facet sandwich, but the facets did not seem weak or loose - they seemed more rounded and chalky, even "damp" - though they were not. Collapse failure must have been the ticket here. When you combine this southwest facing slope and another (sw-facing) 3' deep avalanche in Dry Fork (backside of Alta), and multiple collapses on due south, you know your snowpack has problems.
Hardesty