Avalanche: Mineral Fork 3/25/2011

Observer Name:

Mark White/Spencer Wheatley

Observation Date:

03/26/2011

Occurrence Date:

03/25/2011

Occurrence Time:

Unknown

Region:

Mineral Fork
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Salt Lake

Location Name:

Mineral Fork, East facing off the Santiogo Ridge Line

Avalanche Characteristics

Elevation:

9400'

Aspect:

East

Slope Angle:

Unknown

Trigger:

Natural

Trigger: additional info:

Cornice Triggered

Avalanche Type:

Hard Slab

Depth (avg):

Width:

60'

Vertical:

1250'

General Comments

Saw what I believe to be a new deep slab avalanche in east facing Mineral Fork, located between Marrietto and Santiogo, directly across canyon from East Mineral. Crown was about a hundred feet off the ridge line. By the looks of it a cornice dropped off the ridge and hit a wind loaded depression on the slope. Crown was between 50 and 75ft wide, probably 6 to 7 feet deep at its deepest point, ran full track to the valley floor about 1200 vertical FT, did not get close enough for exact diameters, quite a bit of hang fire above. From the looks of it probably ran either the morning of the 25th or the night of the 24th. Suspected the weak layer to be somewhere around the MLK rain crust, quite a large debris pile at the bottom. Sorry for the dark pics it was starting to cloud up.

General Comments 2

Spencer Wheatley photo

General Comments 3

Spencer Wheatley photo