Avalanche: Provo 12/14/2009

Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:33pm

Submitted by billnalli

Observer Name:

Nalli

Observation Date:

12/14/2009

Occurrence Date:

12/14/2009

Occurrence Time:

5:00am

Region:

Provo

Location Name:

Bishops Bowl

Location

40° 22' 6.672" N, 111° 35' 34.8972" W

Avalanche Characteristics

Elevation:

8200'

Aspect:

Northeast

Slope Angle:

Trigger:

Unknown

Trigger: additional info:

Unintentionally Triggered

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Weak Layer:

Facets

Depth (avg):

2.5'

Width:

200'

Vertical:

30'

General Comments

This was one of the more interesting avalanches I've seen. We think that early in the morning around 5am a cat operator at Sundance

General Comments 2

No one I talked to can actually remember this slope fully failing like this before as it normally has lots of skier compaction. In this shot you can see the slab failed and broke apart, overran the stauchwall and stopped a few feet later. The slope angle in this portion is 30 degrees.

General Comments 3

The weak layer thickness varied from 2cm to 10cm and the slab consisted of 16" of 1F hard wind blown snow atop 12" of 1F- hard partially settled less dense snow from the storm on Dec. 6 and 7.

General Comments 4

A look at the lower portion of the slab where it overran the stauchwall and stopped.

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