Avalanche

Avalanche: Park City Ridgeline

MaloneSalt Lake
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Quick report

Slope Angle
39°

Avalanche

Slab Width
46 m
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Trigger Type
Skier
Vertical Fall
61 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
91 cm
Trigger Detail
Remotely Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
North
Avalanche Problem
Wind Slab
Start Zone Elevation
2926 m

Our Level 2 class was walking the PC ridge line. A group of 7 were breaking trail along the ridge, about twenty minutes prior, and likely remotely triggered this slide. While wind slab is less likely to be triggered remotely, the graupel that fell during Sunday night's/ Monday morning's storm on top of the low density snow of Saturday created an upside down structure beneath the wind slab, adding sensitivity. Several areas of wind deposition (large wind rolls) were seen on this NNW slope and the crown appeared to be approx 3 feet deep. Photo 1: avalanche, Photo 2: skin track switchback above avalanche. We spoke with the trail breaking group later; they recalled noting a large collapse in that area but were unaware of the slide, as it was on a steep rollover and out of sight from the ridge. SS-ASr-R2/D2-I