Avalanche

Avalanche: Flagstaff Ridge

Branden MichelkampSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Slab Width
91 m
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Trigger Type
Snowboarder
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
15 cm
Start Zone Aspect
South
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2987 m

We went up Flagstaff shoulder with the intention of dropping into the other side and doing Oingo Boingo. We quickly realized at around 11:00a the conditions were touchy and we probably shouldn't stay out long as they would only get worse, so we decided to keep the day short and go out Binx's Folly once we hit the summit. On our way down we triggered several small slabs. The most notable was one that triggered at my feet and propagated about 300ft and remotely triggered a couple of other small slabs before all coming together in one of the steeper gullies we were planning to avoid. I was shocked to see how much energy the snow had for only 6" of new snow. I imagine things will be running fast and big tomorrow on the bigger faces.