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Avalanche: Brighton Perimeter

Observer Name
B
Observation Date
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Brighton Perimeter
Location Name or Route
Brighton Perimeter
Elevation
Unknown
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Dry Loose
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow
Depth
18"
Comments
Widespread Natural Loose Dry Avalanche Cycle that appeared to occur in the early morning hours during the High PI. There was 10 to 15cm of new snow on the debris piles. All the steep terrain in the Brighton Back Bowls, the Wolverine Cirque and East Facing Patsy Marley had similar activity. These Avalanches all ran to the transitions and accumulated debris piles of at least a meter in many locations. In one of the slides that was observed in the Brighton Back Bowls the Loose Dry that initiated in the steep upper cliffs actually stepped down to at least a meter onto the new snow/old snow interface from Saturday/Sundays storm. Unfortunately, the light was not cooperative for offering evidence of the Widespread Nature of this Cycle. Besides the one previously cited small step down slab, there were no other Slab Avalanches observed today.
HN24 was at least 40 cm and HST since the Sunday/Monday event is now over a meter deep. Riding was good today and you were able to use the first part of the weekends storm as a based up settled turning surface so even the moderate angled slopes rode well. The steeper slopes that did not have slide debris in them were excellent mid winter ultra deep riding.
Winds remained Light even at the Upper Elevations. The Trail Breaking has improved and become much easier than the inverted snow event from this past weekend.
Coordinates