Avalanche: Snake Creek 1/29/2010

Sat, 01/30/2010 - 6:24pm
Submitted by Drew
Observer Name: 
Hardesty and Reddell
Observation Date: 
01/30/2010
Occurrence Date: 
01/29/2010
Occurrence Time: 
Unknown
Region: 
Snake Creek
Salt Lake

Location

40° 34' 53.508" N, 111° 34' 6.6792" W
Avalanche Characteristics
Elevation: 
10000'
Aspect: 
North
Northeast
East
and steeper
Slope Angle: 
1
Trigger: 
Snowmobiler
Trigger: additional info: 
Unintentionally Triggered
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type: 
Hard Slab
Weak Layer: 
Facets
Depth (avg): 
3'
Depth Range: 
18" to
7'
Width: 
450'
Vertical: 
800'
People Involved
Caught: 
1
Carried: 
1
Partly Buried: 
1
General Comments

Went out with Ian Reddell, snow safety at Solitude resort, John Marinucci, one of the many experienced riders from the previous day's inc

field 063.jpg
Video 1: 
General Comments 2

video of a rider in the party hillclimbing next to yesterday's climax avalanche.  all the riders had beacons, rescue gear, airbags or avalungs and knew the territory well.  Most had taken some sort of avalanche class. 

He was partially buried, along with his sled, down at the toe of the debris - not far from the looker's left sapling.  An expert rider with a top of the line sled, he said he triggers and is caught about once a year. - Including a large one in last year's 10,420' slide. 

field 046.jpg
General Comments 3

A good shot of the size of the blocks.  Hard slab was 18"-7' deep.  Pencil plus hard slab over 2-3mm facets and depth hoar. 

mandyblocks.JPG
General Comments 4

Once again, the internal strength of the hard slab pulls way, way back onto the ridgeline. 

field 054.jpg
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