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Avalanche: Big Water 3/5/2010

Observer Name:

Matt Davidson

Observation Date:

03/05/2010

Occurrence Date:

03/05/2010

Occurrence Time:

Unknown

Region:

Big Water
Mill Creek Canyon
Salt Lake

Avalanche Characteristics

Elevation:

8800'

Aspect:

Northeast

and steeper

Slope Angle:

Trigger:

Skier

Trigger: additional info:

Intentionally Triggered

Remotely Triggered

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Weak Layer:

Surface Hoar

Depth (avg):

Width:

200'

Vertical:

Unknown

General Comments

Soft Slab of new snow. Crown face thickness was 2' deep and about 200ft wide. North to North East aspect. Slope was 36-38 deg. Trigger was hairpin at best. While skiing a NW face of about 25deg, skied along the edge of this face, looking down. Fracture formed up slope, just to the side and downhill of my ski. Ducked off further to the west and turned around and watched this go. I would consider this a remote trigger as I wasn't actually on this face, just nearby.

Cracking appeared just over the bulge of the slope, left quite a bit of hang fire on the gentle aspect adjacent to this slope. Wind may have played a factor in the snow transport of this face, but not a ton as there was no noticeable cornice and the area seemed to be some what sheltered by the nearby trees on the NW aspect.