Observer Name
Very Lucky
Observation Date
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Avalanche Date
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Dutch Draw
Location Name or Route
Conehead
Elevation
10,000'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
Density Change
Depth
18"
Width
350'
Vertical
700'
Caught
1
Carried
1
Comments
*Forecaster note: Thank you for the write up and sharing the information -
Dropped into conehead for my third run of the morning, 2nd on conehead and the 4th set of tracks on the slope. On my 3rd or 4th turn I saw the slope start to break up and immediately cut hard right. This resulted in being taken off my feet and being carried approximately 30-40 yards. I dropped a pole and went to airbag handle but gave one hard stomp with my downhill ski and got lucky. It caught, put me back on my feet and allowed me to ski out of the slide to skiers right.
Being able to ski out of this slide was beyond lucky and should not have happened. This was a huge wake up call on being too comfortable with familiar terrain and not giving the heavy storm load the full respect it deserves.
best guess the crown was approximately 18-24" deep.
Comments
Photos below from UAC Staff
Fracture line profile found weakness as decomposing/fragmented grains near the trigger point. Average depth was 18-24" with the slab hardness as 1F just above the failure plane. No testing today was able to elicit any failure along the same interface.
Thanks, as always, to Canyons snow safety/Park City snow safety for their hospitality.
Hardesty.
Coordinates