Avalanche: Superior

Maxwell Morrill

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Superior

Near Suicide Chute, Lower Superior Apron

9,600'

Southeast

Natural

14"

30'

Myself and a backcountry partner were proceeding up the lower apron of Mount superior from LCC road/Route 210 approx 11:45 We were setting the skin track and making evaluations along the way. Approximately 6-9” of light density snow, from the previous 12-20 hours, fell on top of melt freeze existing snowpack. Skies: Overcast, light snow, wind SW 5-10mph, limited visibility with some sun windows About 35 minutes into setting the skin track, we observed a solo skier making their way up the apron below us. With the skier moving faster than us, we said hello, exchanged brief pleasantries and the skier proceeded to pass us and move above us. Not much more communication besides that was made, and with the skier now above us, we started discussing alternative plans. Ultimately, the poor snow structure, and lack of bonding with significant wind and low visibility besides a couple sun windows made us choose lower elevation and angle terrain. The terrain angle was 27-28 degrees About 10 minutes later, we started to transition. Well aware of the significant hazards above, we considered taking the apron (slope angle 27-28 degrees a much safer route. As we were making our way down, we observed the Skier transitioning to go into suicide chute solo. At the bottom, while we were transitioning and making more assessments of our day, the skier made their way down the apron quite fast and once the skier stopped where we were the skier relayed something about observing the sounds and visuals of an avalanche and significant powder cloud. The skier continued to share the avalanche may have come down the upper mountain (near suicide, slightly lookers left) location of natural release not certain, but probably around the 9500’ foot elevation area With this, we decided to safely head back up and take a look, get more information to make a general observation here. See photo. Red flags: Wind loading / New snow Temp change (some greenhousing) Recent Avalanche