Avalanche: Chablis 1/22/2012

Observer Name: 
Nalli
Observation Date: 
01/22/2012
Occurrence Date: 
01/22/2012
Occurrence Time: 
9:00am
Region: 
Provo
Provo Canyon
Chablis
Location Name: 
Chablis Bowl-Runaway Cliff
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Location

40° 22' 9.6132" N, 111° 36' 26.4996" W
Avalanche Characteristics
Elevation: 
9100'
Aspect: 
Northeast
Slope Angle: 
40
Trigger: 
Skier
Trigger: additional info: 
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type: 
Hard Slab
Weak Layer: 
Facets
Depth (avg): 
3'
Width: 
250'
Vertical: 
400'
General Comments

With good visibility this morning Craig and I went on a scouting mission.  Most steep slopes in the Provo area had some sort of avalanche activity during the last storm.  The ones that hadn't, I feel are hanging in there because they have a more dense, windloaded hard slab over the facets whose strength is keeping it from naturaling.  That doesn't mean they wont go with a trigger however.  Cracking and collapsing is still occurring all over.  This remote avalanche in Chablis Bowl is 3'deep, 250'wide and traveled about 400' vertical.   I'm standing about 100' away taking this picture and you can see the crack that propagated in the foreground.  The thing is, this is not where we triggered it from.  The next pic shows where.

Nalli 2012-01-22 Remote 2.jpg
General Comments 2

The upper arrow is where the last picture was taken.  The yellow line is the right flank and the lower arrow points back to where it was triggered from (another 50' back).  This is by far the longest distance I've ever seen a slide remotely triggered, measured on a map to be over 500' from the right flank.  Wild Stuff.

Nalli 2012-01-22 Remote 1.jpg
General Comments 3

This hard slab also pulled out all the way to the ridge and slightly into negative slope angles.

Nalli 2012-01-22 Remote 3.jpg
General Comments 4

The culprit...5mm Facets 10cm above the ground.

Nalli 2012-01-22 Remote 4.jpg
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