Avalanche: Lackawaxen 1/14/2011

Observer Name:

Aaron Wernerehl

Observation Date:

01/14/2011

Occurrence Date:

01/14/2011

Occurrence Time:

3:00pm

Region:

Lackawaxen
Claytons
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Salt Lake

Location Name:

Backside of Claytons

Location

40° 35' 29.9976" N, 111° 33' 35.4744" W

Avalanche Characteristics

Elevation:

10400'

Aspect:

East

Slope Angle:

Trigger:

Snowboarder

Trigger: additional info:

Unintentionally Triggered

Avalanche Type:

Hard Slab

Weak Layer:

New Snow/Old Snow Interface

Depth (avg):

Width:

80'

Vertical:

150'

People Involved

Caught:

Carried:

Partly Buried:

General Comments

Did a couple of slope cuts to see if the wind deposit would hold and it seemed fine. Took a turn and everything started moving around me. It ripped out about 25 feet above me but I was able to quickly dig into bed surface and did not get carried very far. Seems to be pretty firm wind slabs forming from the 2-3 inches we got last night. Glad I was not above large cliffs!

Forecaster comments - Seems likely that the weak layer may have been the 4" of 4% snow from last Sunday that faceted over the past few days. Consistent with other reports...

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