Avalanche: Horse Ridge 3/19/2011

Observer Name: 
Flygares
Observation Date: 
03/19/2011
Occurrence Date: 
03/19/2011
Occurrence Time: 
Unknown
Region: 
Logan
Providence Canyon
Providence Peak
Horse Ridge
Location Name: 
Tripple Terrace
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Location

41° 41' 57.0912" N, 111° 42' 34.0416" W
Avalanche Characteristics
Elevation: 
9200'
and below
Aspect: 
East
Slope Angle: 
40
Trigger: 
Unknown
Trigger: additional info: 
Repeater
Weak Layer: 
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth (avg): 
18"
Width: 
500'
Vertical: 
Unknown
General Comments

 

We rode in the Prov Canyon/Logan Peak area. The winds were raging along the ridge tops, hard enough to knock us off our feet several times. By about 1:00 PM it turned to full on winter with blizzard like conditions. Anything but the most protected areas were heavily wind affected from last night and today’s winds. In the more protected areas the riding was a nice consolidate powder (North and East). It felt like the rain line was around the 8000-8300 foot elevation. Anything above that elevation we found surprisingly good snow.
Pit tests on a North facing, 40 degree slope at around 8800 feet  showed somewhat stable conditions. We got consistent failures down about 10-12 inches on the 12-14 tap (2-4 from elbow). Extended column test on this same layer did NOT propagate so we felt pretty good about the snowpack in that area. The rest of the snowpack down to the MLK crust was consolidated and stable.  I cut loose one very small slab (10ft X 6ft X 10in) on a heavily loaded area around 9100 feet. Other than that, many slope cuts on steep terrain did not release any slabs.  
As we traveled into the Providence lake area we noticed a very wide slab on triple terrace (East facing 9200 ft). The slab was most likely 500 feet wide and 1-2 feet deep. The slide extends beyond the edges of the picture below. Due to the winds and heavy snow at the time we could not tell what triggered the slide or how far it ran. That is the only evidence of any recent slides we saw in the area.
IMG_4715.JPG
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