Observer Name
Grainger, Young, Rocca
Observation Date
Monday, March 22, 2021
Avalanche Date
Monday, March 22, 2021
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » White Pine
Location Name or Route
White Pine
Elevation
10,500'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
39°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
Density Change
Comments
Oh boy, what a treat. To be skiing powder and just dealing with simple avalanche problems.
Today's travel circumnavigating White Pine presented a variety of relatively-harmless dry loose, wet loose and soft slab pieces.
We saw shallow, dry loose activity all aspects on slopes over ~38 degrees, all running within or on the density change between Saturday and Saturday night's separate storm pulses.
On some aspects that had seen the last days' sun or greenhousing, snow had connected into shallow soft slabs (Pic 4, East-facing).
(Pic 1) Skiing NE Lake Peak ~10,500' we were able to easily ski cut shallow (very) soft slabs and sluff-trigger other slabs 6-8" deep, up to 100' wide running on the density change. Saturday night's wind likely contributed to the second round of snow being more connected.
(Pic 2, 3) The only full storm-depth slide we observed today was in No Name Bowl above Scottie's- NE-facing, 18-24" deep, ~120' wide. Occurred under a midslope rock band, possible graupel-pooling and entraining all of Saturday's storm snow.
The cloud cover and temperature continued greenhousing throughout the afternoon. While upper elevations will preserve soft snow, lower slopes and solar aspects have taken on the spring heat and Saturday's two-pulse snow has slabbed up on its firm bed surface.
Coordinates