Avalanche: West Monitor

Observer Name
mark white
Observation Date
Monday, January 23, 2012
Avalanche Date
Monday, January 23, 2012
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Monitors » West Monitor
Location Name or Route
West Monitor
Elevation
10,100'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
35°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
4'
Width
150'
Vertical
900'
Comments

Went to West Monitor today, was curious about the likelihood of repeaters on previously avalanched slopes. Bingo, found my answer, very likely. Dropped a cornice skiers left of the peak, same place we got to slide thursday, went quite a bit deeper today. Cornice drop sympatheticed a large hard slab avalanche that pulled out on facets at the ground, released right on the ridge and propagated out to about 150 to 175ft about 50 ft down the slope, largest portion of the crown was 6ft deep. This is the first avalanche that I've set off this year that went to the ground. Climbed down on the bed surface and realized there was only about a inch of old facets sitting on top of dirt and rocks, looked like it cleaned the path to the ground the whole distance of the slide. Debris ran farther than any other previous slides that I've triggered in West Monitor this year, ran all the way the across the flats and into the pine trees at the bottom. Slide popped out like a cash register with alot of energy. Slab that slid was pencil hard.

Comments

Pics of bed surface which was bassically the ground and debris. would have been a fatal ride with all the rocks on the slope exposed.

Comments

Also got a look at Dutches thursday about half of it pulled out naturally, today the whole thing had gone wall to wall. pics of a comparison between thursdays slide and this most recent one.

Comments

Also of note some crown lines on the NW facing sub ridge between W and S monitor

Video
Coordinates