Avalanche: Meadows

Observer Name
Nalli
Observation Date
Monday, November 22, 2010
Avalanche Date
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver Fork » Meadows
Location Name or Route
Silver Fork Meadows ( chute below football field )
Elevation
9,200'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Weak Layer
Graupel
Depth
12"
Width
50'
Vertical
200'
Comments

After a full day of skiing the gentler lines high in the meadows we exited the chute below the football field. Our group split up from 5 to 2 skiers for one more run. On the exit, the two of us regrouped mid slope for a better visual spot. Where to slope steepens, I placed a ski cut with no results and then continued to ski out. Four turns into the steeper slope, the slide released 30' above me and slowly gained speed. It may have started as a LS and then triggered a slab. The leading edge of the LS slide hit me and pushed me down slope a bit when I realized what was happening and skied hard to the right. The main flow picked up speed and traveled down slope another 150' vertical leaving 3'-4' of debris. Close call especially because of the numerous trees, brush and rocks to hit in this zone. No pics due to the bad visibility.

Comments

The pack above 9500' in the meadows is overall stacking up very nicely. Dense moist snow at the ground, gradual lowering densities as it goes up until about 12" from the surface where there is 3"-4" of lighter density snow and graupel from late friday night and then dense windblown to the surface from the last 48 hours. HS is about 1m. Numerous large collapses were felt throughout the day mostly on the steeper breakovers and around buried brush. Below about 9500' the recent new snow is much more dense and the layering is more stratified.

Coordinates