Observer Name
Craig Gordon
Observation Date
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Region
Uintas » Chalk Creek
Location Name or Route
Mill Fork/Chalk Creek
Elevation
10,500'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
39°
Trigger
Natural
Trigger: additional info
Cornice Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
3.5'
Width
300'
Vertical
600'
Comments
Multiple avalanches on the leeward side of heavily wind loaded north facing slopes in the wind zone. Driven by the 2/7 storm cycle (18" snow with 1.7" H2O) along with big winds, the slides I observed fall in line with a failure on the 2/2 NSF. In addition, they follow the trend of recent avy activity in steep, rocky terrain that harbors weak, sugary snow
Comments
Day off, but I wanted to follow a hunch with the 2/2 NSF and to keep my avy skillset sharp. My partner and I had a most excellent snowpack recon along with some avy sight-seeing which confirmed my suspicions.
So we went to non-avalanche terrain (sunny, low angle, planar rather than steep, rocky, shady)
And then the church doors opened... delivering truly remarkable, high alpine skiing on low angle, sunny slopes along the way :)
Coordinates