UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: Skyline

Observer Name
Darce Trotter Steve Cote Seth Wallace
Observation Date
Friday, January 20, 2012
Avalanche Date
Friday, January 20, 2012
Region
Skyline
Location Name or Route
GE Hill proper
Elevation
9,500'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
37°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
2.5'
Width
200'
Vertical
150'
Comments

After finding a repeater on GE Hill that ran much larger and naturally, recently (Wed night snow and wind event? last night? or even more recently) we decided to throttle back our approach and as I contoured around the lower angle slope above the wind loaded east face I triggered another 2.5' deep hard slab remotely from a safe position 20' away ( do i sense a pattern ala Wolf Creek Pass, sorry no video, we are AV challenged). It ran on loose facets, unlike the repeater that ran on top of old hard slab and NSF/surface hoar that probably formed in very cold temp prior to Wednesday storm. The Skyline only picked up 2" of new snow Wednesday, but the significant wind event from the west also occurred during that period. In the bigger picture, the area has only picked up 4" of new snow in the last two weeks, but it was enough to tip the scale on some pockets and push other pockets to a hair trigger state. I do not think this is going to go away anytime soon. Additional loading from new snow or more wind will push more over the edge and that would be a good thing, worse case scenerio would be more dribbles of snow and not the clean out event we need.

Comments

This is the natural repeater, see Craig and Trents video from two weeks ago

Comments

overview, we were traversing in the flatter terrain above

Comments

facets at crown.

Coordinates