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Avalanche: Porter Fork

Observer Name
Brian Muller & Ian Nicholson
Observation Date
Friday, March 18, 2011
Avalanche Date
Friday, March 18, 2011
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » Porter Fork
Location Name or Route
Gobblers Knob
Elevation
9,600'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Unknown
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Depth
16"
Width
70'
Vertical
100'
Comments

avalanche was on a NE facing aspect around 9500 feet or so, I believe I pinpointed the location on the map. I was only able to look at it from a distance, but it appeared to be around a foot and a half deep, 70' wide, and maybe a hundred or so feet in elevation. It was a soft slab, and I did not notice any tracks in or out, so it could have either been a natural, or triggered from a natural cornice fall. After continuing skinning, we stopped and dug a pit. I will hopefully be able to give you guys a full picture of the pit today, but our results in this pit, which was on a West facing aspect of Gobblers, approximately 500 vert below the summit. On an ECT, we had full Q2 propogation at 45 cm, on facets just below the MLK crust. On two seperate CT's, we had results of 12 and 18, on a layer I had detailed in my obs yesterday, but am not recalling at the moment, as these were Ian Nicholson's CT's. What I do remember about the layer, I believe 30 cm down, was that on doing temperature gradients, in the 10 cm around this higher crust and possible facet layer, was a 1.7˚ C TG, telling me this crust region was trending towards more faceting.

Coordinates