Avalanche
- Slab Width
- 6 m
- Trigger Type
- Natural
- Vertical Fall
- 61 m
- Avalanche Type
- Soft Slab
- Slab Thickness
- 30 cm
- Start Zone Aspect
- Southeast
- Avalanche Problem
- Wind Slab
- Start Zone Elevation
- 2987 m
Saw two small avalanches on southeast aspects around 9800'. Not much other activity in the upper Cottonwoods as seen from Grizzly Gulch and Emma Ridge. This is likely due to the pounding wind event of the last 24hrs. Sometimes when its excessively strong, the wind just plasters everything in place. Don't get me wrong, there's likely plenty of booby traps out there just waiting for a trigger but overall, not that sensitive. This first slide in the Grizzly Cup released naturally sometime overnight or early morning. SS-N-R1-D1.5-I. Hard to say exactly what layer it failed in but either old snow surface or a slight density change early in the storm. Either way the shallow depth suggests it was just the storm snow.
These next two pics are of a small skier triggered slide in Culps. Pretty small but noteworthy as an indicator of where to find the booby traps.
Lots of variability out there from stripped down raised tracks to sculpted cross loading.