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Avalanche: Ant Knolls

Observer Name
Kobernik - Meisenheimer
Observation Date
Monday, February 20, 2012
Avalanche Date
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Region
Provo » American Fork » Ant Knolls
Location Name or Route
Ant Knolls
Elevation
9,500'
Aspect
Southeast
Trigger
Snowmobiler
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
12"
Width
200'
Vertical
450'
Comments

We stumbled onto an interesting avalanche today at the Ant Knolls. To me, the most likely trigger seemed like a sledder while hill climbing. It could have been natural but it doesn't make much sense since there was no significant new snow load and no new wind loading on that particular slope. There was just a skiff of new snow on the bed surface indicating it probably released Sunday.

The weakness was facets below a fairly thick melt freeze crust. It appears that most of this terrain avalanched in the January cycle leaving a very shallow weak snowpack. The faceted layer was VERY loose.

Throughout the day, the only other activity that we saw was very minor, small pockets within the new snow that probably released Sunday when the wind picked up. There was some wind effect along the higher terrain with some larger pillows noted.

Coordinates