Observer Name
Havlick/Hardesty
Observation Date
Friday, March 18, 2011
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine » White Baldy
Location Name or Route
White Baldy
Elevation
10,700'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
37°
Trigger
Natural
Trigger: additional info
Cornice Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Weak Layer
Surface Hoar
Depth
6'
Width
300'
Vertical
500'
Comments
Drew and I skied up to check out Fred Staff's report of large natural avalanche in upper white pine today...and we were not let down. Likely triggered Wednesday night based of the recent deposit of dust layer, associated with the most recent snowfall. After investigating the huge crown, it was clear the slide initiated from an unknown sized cornice fall (guessing pretty large) tumbling onto a slightly thinner portion of the 'hanging snowfield,' breaking around 4ft deep and propagating in both directions, ~300ft+ total, running on buried surface hoar below the MLK rain crust.TAKE HOME: very large avalanche, (~R3-D3.5), initiated by a heavy cornice trigger and no compressive support (hanging snowfield resting above rock bands).
Photo below of 7mm decaying January Surface Hoar - that and weak 2-3mm facets - the failure plane there beneath the January MLK rain crust -
Comments
Crown and looming cornice
Comments
Drew at deepest portion of crown. Humbling.
Video
Coordinates