UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: Bountiful Ridge

Observer Name
Owen
Observation Date
Friday, February 26, 2010
Avalanche Date
Friday, February 26, 2010
Region
Salt Lake » Session Mountains » Bountiful Ridge
Location Name or Route
Elevation
8,400'
Aspect
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Unknown
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Weak Layer
Surface Hoar
Depth
15"
Width
100'
Vertical
Unknown
Comments

Bountiful Ridge - Sessions West Cloudy, mid to high 20's, no wind. Hard slab, Northwest aspect, 8400 feet, 38 degrees, 15 inches deep, 100 feet wide, movement on burried surface hoar. On second run, a slab partially released by a ski cut while dropping off a ridge. The slab moved 4-6 inches, compressing and folding along bottom edge, 75 feet below the crown. There were no indications of instability. No cracking or collapsing. First run (same slope) did not produce any indicators of instability. There were no indicators of wind loading. No pillows or hollow sounding drifts. The conditions were great skiing. 6-8 inches of medium density powder, atop 5 inches heavy snow. Seemed very stable and I didn't hesitate to ski the line. Very disturbing to see it crack on my second run. The UAC forecast was spot on by saying conditions are tricky and "don't be too comfortable" even when indicators say "go".

Coordinates