Avalanche: West Monitor 1/23/2012

Observer Name: 
mark white
Observation Date: 
01/23/2012
Occurrence Date: 
01/23/2012
Occurrence Time: 
1:00pm
Region: 
Salt Lake
Park City Ridgeline
Monitors
West Monitor
Location Name: 
West Monitor
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Avalanche Characteristics
Elevation: 
10100'
Aspect: 
Northeast
Slope Angle: 
35
Trigger: 
Skier
Trigger: additional info: 
Intentionally Triggered
Cornice Triggered
Sympathetic Release
Repeater
Avalanche Type: 
Hard Slab
Weak Layer: 
Facets
Depth (avg): 
4'
Width: 
150'
Vertical: 
900'
General Comments

Went to West Monitor today, was curious about the likelihood of repeaters on previously avalanched slopes. Bingo, found my answer, very likely. Dropped a cornice skiers left of the peak, same place we got to slide thursday, went quite a bit deeper today. Cornice drop sympatheticed a large hard slab avalanche that pulled out on facets at the ground, released right on the ridge and propagated out to about 150 to 175ft about 50 ft down the slope, largest portion of the crown was 6ft deep. This is the first avalanche that I've set off this year that went to the ground. Climbed down on the bed surface and realized there was only about a inch of old facets sitting on top of dirt and rocks, looked like it cleaned the path to the ground the whole distance of the slide. Debris ran farther than any other previous slides that I've triggered in West Monitor this year, ran all the way the across the flats and into the pine trees at the bottom. Slide popped out like a cash register with alot of energy. Slab that slid was pencil hard.

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Video 1: 
General Comments 2

Pics of bed surface which was bassically the ground and debris. would have been a fatal ride with all the rocks on the slope exposed.

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General Comments 3

Also got a look at Dutches thursday about half of it pulled out naturally, today the whole thing had gone wall to wall. pics of a comparison between thursdays slide and this most recent one.

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General Comments 4

Also of note some crown lines on the NW facing sub ridge between W and S monitor

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