Avalanche: Dog Dish

Observer Name
Chester
Observation Date
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine » Dog Dish
Location Name or Route
dog dish
Elevation
9,700'
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Skier
Depth
14"
Width
300'
Comments
we were trying to keep the angles low but unintentionally triggered this anyway. I was surprised because didn't look intimidating. Clearly steep enough. move a bit/ hit 5 mph maby and stopped in 10-40 feet.
caught but not carried, slab very soft and never got up speed. Didn't effect rider much. stayed riding on feet. only moved 10-40 vertical feet.
some range to crown 10"-16" suggest some wind drifting.
wrapped a bit aspect wise. ene to n. triggered ene makes me think not crust(see gagne obs 2/20)
i looked at crown/ slide. very soft 4 finger to fist slab and and bed. I think the soft bed and low angle that was mellowing helped it arrest.
weak layer had and was I think grapul, so did did the slab, just a ton of grauple out of this storm. Slope was below steeper slope/ cliff. no crust around weak layer.
I would guess grapple combined with new storm snow w density change/ wind drifted snow. it's been warm but snow keeps comming w lots of dense snow n record amount of grauple. 48 hr rule a good one. I did trigger 2 other very small slides on test slopes on way out and there was a lot of cracking. Even though it appears like ur in a grauple sandbox, there is a slab. hard/impossible to see wind drifting. Very touchy conditions.
Comments
Dave Kikkert photo