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Observer Name
Anonymous
Observation Date
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Avalanche Date
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Red Pine
Location Name or Route
Red Pine Canyon
Elevation
9,600'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
14"
Width
40'
Vertical
125'
Caught
1
Carried
1
Snow Profile Comments

Crown varied from 2" to 16",

snow profile:

4" new snow, fist

8" thick pencil to knife slab, this is the slab that ran, This was an old slab and not new snow.

4" facets, 1mm, fist

facets, 4 finger to one finger, this was the bed surface.

Of note the slide did step down thru a 1" thick crust into more facets, this crust was not observed at the crown.

Comments

This is a perfect example of a booby trap (albeit an a-cup one) that can occur in areas of generally low danger. The TGR folks would call it mini-golf.

The slide was triggered by skier A on a mid-slope roll over, who skied off the slab. Skier B, triggered a 12' wide section of hangfire (the cut was sorta intentional, the ride not....) and went for a 35' ride, very minor, he sat on the slow moving slab. Terrain did not allow him to ski off the slab. Skier B looked at the trigger for his airbag pack and decided it was not needed. Skier A watched skier B and thought "don't bother with the airbag".

It is doubtful that this would have occurred if the slope angle had been a few degrees less. Both Skiers had observed similar snow pack structures in the last week or two.

Coordinates