Observation: USA Bowl 1/24/2012

Observer Name: 
mark white
Region: 
Salt Lake
Big Cottonwood Canyon
USA Bowl
Observation Date: 
01/24/2012
Location or Route: 
USA Bowl
Weather
Sky: 
Few
Wind Speed: 
Calm

Snow Characteristics

New Snow Depth: 
4"
New Snow Density: 
Low
Snow Surface Conditions: 
Powder
Snow Characteristic Comments: 

Little bit of fluff ontop of a soft supportable base made for some good low angle skiing, finally.

snow_profile_location: 
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Comments - Photos - Videos (group 1)

Decided to go skiing insted of looking for avalanches today, found a sum what interesting slide anyway. This small pocket was on west facing USA Bowl, skiers far left in the aspens. Time line seems like it happened around Sunday sometime. My guess is that it was remotely triggered from a skin trail that was fairly close to the pocket, skiers probably didn't even notice it. Slide was  probably 75ft wide 2ft deep, new snow only, ran about 50ft, top part of the slide looked as if it mostly just fracture and moved a few feet.

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Comments - Photos - Videos (group 2)

What was interesting about this pocket is that it hardly ever slides, I personally have never seen a slide here before. I quess a really weak snow pack makes for some unusual slides. Pics are depth of crown, and the staunch wall about 50ft down in the aspens.

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