Observer Name
Dave Jarvis
Observation Date
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Avalanche Date
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Region
Provo » Rock Canyon
Location Name or Route
Rock Canyon Crows Foot Couloir
Elevation
Unknown
Aspect
South
Trigger
Natural
Depth
Unknown
Width
25'
Comments
I was at Second Right hand Overlook at about 12;45 & watched an avalanche run out the bottom of the West branch of the Crows Foot Couloir. It had been mostly clear at that point and the trigger would have been rapid warming and greenhousing in the deep narrow couloir. Some parts of the trail that had sustained sun were damp and slushy.
I heard a second avalanche run about 15 minutes later as I approached the West end of Rock Canyon Campground. It was behind trees, but sounded like the same area. The light was too flat when I got back to the overlook, and I
couldn't see any clear indication of which branch the second ran down. Or the amount of debris from either.
The trail approaching the East meadow and outhouses hadn't been punched-out yet. My poles would penetrate two
feet before hitting firm pack. The sub-surface pack was just warm enough to be moderately packable. My boots were punching down about 18". 60 to 70 yards of that was enough to wear me out, tantalizingly close to the East meadow views. "gnurtz!" So, I boogied back to the West end of the campground and wolfed down a snack.
I did see some tracks of either some rollers or small slide in an open patch due East of the campground. And, some dry sluffing on the east side of Y Mountain. My roller test slope wouldn't propagate on the way up, but would build
large poorly consolidated rollers on the way down.
Because of heavy loading of new snow and forecast snow for the next three days, I'm going to throw out that for Rock Canyon that the hazard level is going to bump up to considerable at lower altitude on the North end of the
compass and to high at all the upper altitudes.
Coordinates