Avalanche

Avalanche: Bountiful Peak

Staples/Osbourne/DeutschlanderOgden
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Avalanche

Slab Width
61 m
Weak Layer
Graupel
Trigger Type
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
46 cm
Trigger Detail
Cornice Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
Northeast
Avalanche Problem
Wind Slab
Start Zone Elevation
2743 m

This one was more interesting. I think it was just related to heavy wind loading; however, you can see it initialy broke under the cornice. But then you can see how it appears to have broken a little deeper lower on the slope. It may have stepped down onto a buried graupel layer. See second photo. Moving ahead, everywhere we checked, that graupel was very well bonded and would only break in our stability tests after a lof of force. It would not propagate a crack across the column.