Avalanche

Avalanche: Days Fork

dfvspSalt Lake
View on map

Quick report

Slope Angle
38°

Avalanche

Slab Width
12 m
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
122 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
20 cm
Trigger Detail
Intentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
North
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Start Zone Elevation
3048 m

Triggered two slides this afternoon. First was skiers right of the main hideaway gullies. A couple of ski turns on the mellow section high above a convex rollover was all it took to propagate a crack and trigger a new snow avalanche several yards downslope. Two adjacent paths sympathetically released resulting in a larger avalanche which crossed and covered a large section of the skin track below. The low density snow would have been hard pressed to knock even an unaware skier off their feet, yet once all of the snow had channeled into the gully, it would have been an unpleasant experience to be a part of. Second was in Main Days. A ski cut on a rollover mid slope in the main gully produced a new snow slide which propagated out about 8" deep and 40' wide. Two other identical slides were noted. One likely human triggered at the bottom steeps and one potentially natural breaking off a steep roll just below the ridge and covering several ski tracks at the transition below.

Strong SSE winds (40 mph+) greeted me on my return up hideaway. It was full on- goggles and puffy, blizzard skinning up to West Bowl peak at 7 pm.