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Avalanche: West Monitor 3/6/2010

Observer Name:

Harris

Observation Date:

03/06/2010

Occurrence Date:

03/06/2010

Occurrence Time:

1:30pm

Region:

Salt Lake
Park City Ridgeline
White Pine Canyon
West Monitor

Location Name:

West Monitor

Avalanche Characteristics

Elevation:

Unknown

Aspect:

Northeast

East

Trigger:

Skier

Avalanche Type:

Soft Slab

Depth (avg):

unknown

Width:

Unknown

Vertical:

Unknown

Snow Profile

Snow Profile Comments:

We observed a solo skier trigger a soft slab that appeared to be 2-3' deep and maybe 100' wide, though we only observed the slide from a distance. We noticed the slide moments after it happened as the skier was examining the crown but didn't see if the slide was triggered remotely, by ski cut, or unintentionally on the first turn of descent.

We'd been surprised earlier by how wind damaged the snow on the ridge seperating the Monitors looked: the scallops were visible from miles away. The snow in the area immediately around the avalanche was also rippled and pillowed through a combination of top- and cross-loading and it seems likely that the avalanche was a storm snow windslab.