Avalanche: Santaquin Canyon

Observer Name
Luke
Observation Date
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Avalanche Date
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Region
Provo » Santaquin Canyon
Location Name or Route
Santaquin 'Squashhead'
Elevation
Unknown
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Natural
Depth
5'
Width
60'
Comments
Follow up to the previous avalanche report in Santaquin. We witnessed 10 (maybe 11?) slides come down the ice climb Squashhead within a 3 hour period starting at 11, the pair in the previous report witnessed the first one and left at the base, wisely. Thank you two for checking on the other parties! Two slides after they left came to the road, and we witnessed multiple others between them lasting between 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length. A party of two managed to make it off the top with no injuries between these slides and I know many people learned quite a bit about the dangers of ice climbing underneath large gullies today. All wet slides of considerable size and weight, the largest was probably 2-2.5 factor and could have buried a large SUV. SAR was activated between these events but ultimately weren't necessary (very thankfully) and we are all glad no one was injured or worse.