Avalanche: Pioneer Bowl

Observer Name
B
Observation Date
Friday, November 29, 2019
Avalanche Date
Friday, November 29, 2019
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Pioneer Bowl
Location Name or Route
Pioneer Bowl
Elevation
9,800'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Depth Hoar
Depth
Unknown
Width
Unknown
Vertical
Unknown
Comments
Poor visibilty for photo (annotation denotes crowns), but mid morning break in the storm allowed for a good look into the Pioneer Bowl area from the East Ridge of Pioneer. Definite crowns were observed just under steep cliffs to rider's right of the Main Chute. The entire rider's left wall from mid slope down off the North Ridge had connected pockets as well. They all appeared to have run possibly overnight during the high PI rates on 20191128 into 20191129. Along with these observations, there had also been activity in the Toilet Bowl area as well as the V-Tree Area. No crowns were able to be observed safely, yet hard slab debris chunks were observed in the lower runout zones as well as covering the uphill sides of trees. Of Note: Numerous and widespread loud thundering collapses were observed while traveling on the low angle northerly side of the East Ridge of Pioneer. See other photo. Also of note, numerous collapses were observed on the low angle S and SE aspects off the East Ridge. There appeared to be a 3 cm layer of October facets with a 2 cm m/f crust capping it, and the collapsing slab consisted of 1 finger to pencil hard new snow that had been stiffened up by the upslope southerly winds.
Coordinates