Scott House & Brian Brechwald

Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Monitors » West Monitor

Sub-ridge between South and West Monitor/West Monitor Sneak

9,500'

North

38°

Skier

Intentionally Triggered

Soft Slab

New Snow

Density Change

6"

25'

40'

Brian put in a ski cut above a steep roll on the ridge between South and West Monitor at ~9,500'. I (Scott House) was spotting from above. As Brian cut just above the steep roll (~37-38 degrees) a small soft slab pulled out. It appeared to be in the density change in the new snow. Approximately 6" deep, 20' wide and ran about 40 feet to where the roll flattened out. We didn't notice any other signs of significant instability other than some very minor cracking on the up-track. Also, noticed the couple of pockets Mark White pulled out yesterday but they were already filling in and hard to define. Mark's track were still visible in South Monitor and it didn't look like the wind had filled them in much at all. We found the average depth in the area to be between 75cm-85cm. There was indications of a small surface hoar layer forming but with rimming and the wind it was hard to define. It will be interesting to see how Saturdays storm interacts with the current snow surface, especially with continued cold temps today and tomorrow. I would be suspect of the current structure until it shows us it can be trusted. Lot's of interesting wind loaded pockets and the reactive density change could easily catch you off gaurd and pull you through some nasty stuff, just below the surface. Sorry for the bad photo, light was tricky.