Meisenheimer, Donovan, Wessler

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mineral Fork » Highline

Mineral Fork to upper Ridgeline

9,700'

Northeast

38°

Skier

Remotely Triggered

Soft Slab

Persistent Weak Layer

Facets

20"

150'

600'

This avalanche was remotely triggered by my party today. It was triggered by walking on the safety of the ridge. We were able to see below us and nobody else was in the drainage. We had widespread collapsing along the upper ridge with shooting cracks up to 500' in both directions many times. Mineral Fork has not gone through a major avalanche cycle like most of its up-canyon neighbors. I saw no other natural avalanches, or debris piles from the Thanksgiving storm. The general snowpack layering in Mineral Fork: 4-8" of faceted snow on the ground with 24" of new snow above that (four finger hardness). No crusts were noted.