Avalanche: Summit Park

Observer Name
Patterson
Observation Date
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Avalanche Date
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Region
Salt Lake » Parleys Canyon » Summit Park
Location Name or Route
Summit Park Ridgeline
Elevation
8,500'
Aspect
North
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Depth
20"
Width
150'
Vertical
400'
Comments

Got home from work just as the front passed this afternoon around 3:00pm. Walked up to the ridge above summit park to the toll bowls anticipating a sensitive snow pack. Dense 4F+ to 1F slab existed on N aspects that was freely collapsing and cracking. Slope angle was key. Anything steeper than 33-35 degrees where dry facets existed would avalanche at will, remotely, from the ridgeline, pulling back on to lower angle terrain. Pretty much pulled out every steep slope in the area, most being SS-ASr-R2/3-D2-O. Weak layer was the striated facet chains that have formed below the Jan. rain/rime crust, which is still in tact in this area. Second Jakes opinion that this is the weakest snow i've been looking at recently. Slab was failing on this layer but leaving 20-30 cm of dry cups that were quickly covered by the storm snow. Repeaters likely on these slopes.

Comments

Video below is of a slope that didn't have the slope angle to produce an avalanche, instead just window pane-ing the slab. The caveat here is that although this didn't avalanche, on my exit ~500ft below this slope, there were sympathetic releases where the slope angle increased towards 35 degrees or steeper that had been triggered from the collapse above, some on different aspects that were completely unconnected.

Comments

Further up the ridge is one of the steeper spots on this ridge that is a usual suspect in this area. I was happy when I got there to see that it hadn't naturaled yet. Good example of how important the slope angle was.

Video
Video
Coordinates