Avalanche: White Rock Hollow

Observer Name
Weed, McAvoy
Observation Date
Friday, March 2, 2012
Avalanche Date
Friday, March 2, 2012
Region
Logan » Left Hand Fork-Blacksmith Fork » Richards Hollow » White Rock Hollow
Location Name or Route
Upper White Rock Hollow
Elevation
9,000'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
37°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Weak Layer
Depth Hoar
Depth
3.5'
Width
1,000'
Vertical
700'
Comments

We remote triggered a small cornice fall from about 30' to the windward while walking along the ridge, which triggered a very large hard slab, 4 to 6' deep and maybe 500' wide. This in turn caused another wider pocket a few hundred feet north to sympathetic 2' to 3' deep and 800' wide.... ENE.....EAST....ESE facing, 9000' Repeater on January Facets/depth hoar. We accessed White Rock Hollow from Middle Fork, Providence Canyon

We witnessed the upper section of the southern flank fracture and go, and a large air-blast running way out over the low angled run out and in to the forest below.... The avalanche took out a couple good sized trees in it's path

These are photos of the initial or south avalanche in the broad bowl...

Comments

This is looking up at the northern avalanche. It was a sympathetic release, after the first one ran. I triggered a pretty good sized piece of hang-fire trying to get into the avalanche to have a look. The slab broke apart around and above me, and I almost deployed my airbag, but pointed em straight down the hill and was able to outrun and escape the serpent.... If you look closely, you can see my straight-line escape track a little to the right of the northern flank of the avalanche. The 2' deep hang-fire avalanche pulled out and overran a good number of Darren's ski tracks.

Comments

We worked our way back up the avalanche path, now the least dangerous option...

The debris from both avalanches was quite extensive to say the least..... difficult to describe.... Spread over many acres. Deep piles on uphill side of trees and in dips in terrain, some large trees down in the southern avalanche

Comments

The avalanche failed on large grained faceted snow or depth hoar.... The snowpack was generally thin in this area due to January natural avalanches and east wind events....

Video
Coordinates