Observer Name
B
Observation Date
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Avalanche Date
Saturday, February 8, 2025
Region
Provo » Snake Creek
Location Name or Route
Snake Creek Cirque
Elevation
9,700'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger
Natural
Trigger: additional info
Repeater
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
2.5'
Width
500'
Vertical
500'
Snow Profile Comments
Crown depth 74cm, HS 120cm; Structure of Slab from top down to bed surface: 22.5cm of Fist Hard Light Density New Snow, 30cm of 4 finger grauple, 15cm of Knife Hard Wind Slab, 6.5cm of 4 finger plus grauple, Thin Layer of .5mm facets (Weak Layer for initial failure); Bed Surface: 2cm of Pencil Hard Ambiant/Melt Freeze Crust (from last weeks warmup)
Avalanche appeared to initially release on the Thin Layer of facets diretly above the Ambiant/Melt Freeze Crust and then immediately step down to a 10cm Fist minus layer of 1 to 1.5mm advanced facets.
There were snow machine tracks below the runout and they may have remotely triggered this slide. But more likely this slide was triggered during the final round of snow yesterday afternoon when the PI was Intense. There was no obvious sign of Wind Loading in the upper layers, just the Fist hard new snow. Finally there was 10cm of light density snow on the bed surface, so this helps date the timing of the slide.
Comments
Photo "1: Long view of the slide
Photo #2: Slab Profile picture/Crown Profile
Photo #3: View of the Crown and it's upper Left Flank
Comments
FYI: There was another repeater observed in the Big Flats Hill Climb Zone in Lower Snake Creek Canyon. Flat light, thus no pictures. Very similar aspect and Depth/Crown/Weak Layer appeared to mimic the Snake Creek Cirque Slide
Coordinates