Avalanche

Avalanche: Big Cottonwood Canyon

jp gendronSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
12 m
Trigger Type
Skier
Slab Thickness
20 cm
Start Zone Aspect
East
Start Zone Elevation
3170 m

I trigger this immediately with a ski cut at the very top of the bowl. Heavy new snow/ frozen surface interface. Fairly predictable slide considering new snow density from yesterday and today on top of the frozen hard pack beneath. Not enough to fully bury, plenty to ruin your day. There were also two timbersled tracks that traversed directly across the middle of the bowl. I watched them while I was ascending, and was rather surprised that nothing moved- these guys were pretty lucky not to have triggered anything while perpendicularly center punching the bowl.