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Observer Name
Michael Janulaitis
Observation Date
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Avalanche Date
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Region
Uintas » Mirror Lake Highway » Mt Watson
Location Name or Route
Mt.Watson
Elevation
11,400'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
42°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
12"
Width
250'
Vertical
600'
Comments

I headed up to Mt. Watson today to do some skiing. The first mile of the road had about 4-6" of new snow otherwise it was pavement. On the way back it was totally melted out. I expect the plows will move the end of the road up a mile tomorrow. Once up in the Mt. Watson area it was I was greeted with 8-10 of new snow in the fields below the towing peaks. Since the south wind that accompanied the storm had loaded the north slopes, I decided to skin up to the north east facing couloir on Notch Mountain in hopes of ski cutting a slide. I ski cut the loaded rollover at the top with no results. I headed back down the south side for some safe south facing low angle skiing. After a few laps the skies began to clear enough to get a better view of the wind loading on Mt. Watson. To my delight, there was minimal wind loading. However, I noticed this shallow but wide soft slab avalanche that occurred yesterday. Judging by the length that it ran, it was a slow mover and given the shallow depth manageable if in a narrower line such as the one I skied.

Coordinates