Avalanche: Greaseball

Observer Name
BC
Observation Date
Monday, April 15, 2019
Avalanche Date
Monday, April 15, 2019
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Kessler Peak » Greaseball
Location Name or Route
Greaseball/Argenta
Elevation
10,200'
Aspect
Northwest
Trigger
Skier
Depth
12"
Width
30'
Comments
The forecast was spot on today: human triggered avalanches possible on specific terrain features. After ski cutting the top of the gully with no result, I made a turn on the subridge on skier's left. The subridge had been cross loaded and a small wind slab pulled out. I was able to arrest on the bed surface, the avalanche traveled about 500 vertical feet down the gully. Avalanche slid on the old snow surface.
Not worthy of a separate report, but we were able to initiate a number of wet "push-alanches" on a variety of aspects around Kessler. These required slopes steeper than 35 degrees to get moving, but in sustained steep terrain they gained a fair amount of mass.
Coordinates