Avalanche: Horse Creek Chutes

Observer Name
Chris Benson
Observation Date
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Avalanche Date
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Region
Moab » Horse Creek Chutes
Location Name or Route
Horse Creek Chutes
Elevation
11,400'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
4'
Width
1,500'
Vertical
1,000'
Comments
We observed a single track headed down Coyote chute. As we topped out at the Wx station, we noticed debris in the valley floor.
Used the drone to have a quick look to ensure the tracks exited the debris.
This avalanche looked fairly recent and ran fairly wide, although it wasn't very deep.
Possibly a wind slab from the recent storm/ SE winds.
Forecaster Comment (Garcia): It is possible that this avalanche was remotely triggered by the skier in Coyote Chute. It is also possible that this avalanche was triggered by the other set of ski tracks in Horse Creek Chute. This is unknown. Taking a closer look at the crown, the avalanche could have failed on facets. The crown looks deep, and is well connected across the slope. The bed surface also shows a lot of rocks, and it appears this slid down to the ground. There was a very large avalanche on this slope in January, taking out the entire season's snowpack. This slope would have had a shallow and weak snowpack, and an avalanche failing on facets seems reasonable.
Comments
Forecaster Comment #2 (Trenbeath): I went in to investigate this avalanche/s on March 20. Between March 13-16, 22" of snow fell at 2.4" Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). The storm cycle began with very strong, anomalous east winds. As the cycle progressed, winds backed off and and shifted to more southerly. On Sun, March 17, widespread avalanches from wind drifted snow 1'-2' deep were observed on upper elevation N-NE aspects. On this particular NE aspect however, the avalanche/s failed up to 4' deep, likely on basal facets. As noted above, this is a repeat running slide path that was remote triggered to the ground on January, 15. Most of these paths were connected by a contiguous slab encompassing an 1800' swath of terrain. One or two avalanches failed separately but I've chronicled them as a single event, and I've concluded that this was a natural avalanche.
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