Avalanche: West Monitor

Observer Name
mark white
Observation Date
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Monitors » West Monitor
Location Name or Route
West Monitor
Elevation
10,100'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
37°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Wet Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wet Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
12"
Width
30'
Vertical
800'
Comments
Pushed a small pile of snow into West Monitor Bowl, this quickly initiated a wet slab that was 30ft wide and ran astonishingly fast on the old snow surface. As it proceeded down the slope it gain momentum and volume and ran out onto the flats at the bottom leaving a large, heavy and dense debris pile at the bottom. The bowl already had a few other wet slides from cornice falls and anything over about 34 degrees was primed to wet slide. Seeing this I kept my slope angles down the rest of the day.