Avalanche: West Desolation Ridge

Observer Name
Kikkert
Observation Date
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Avalanche Date
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mill D North » West Desolation Ridge
Location Name or Route
West Desolation
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
5'
Comments

Avalanche was already reported, but walked by it and got a crappy iphone photo, then couldn't resist looking at a portion of the crown. The portion I looked at was on the far west flank where the slide wrapped around the ridge. At least in this part, it looked to start on one of the upper facet layers, probably late December/early Jan. It then quickly stepped down to the ground. Not sure if this was true of the entire slide, as from a distance some parts don't look as deep, but probably still likely that the rest went to the ground as well. Photos below: 1) poor shot of the avalanche with the extent outlined in red, 2) photo from the crown on the west flank, 3) crown on the west flank showing the step down to older snow, 4) runout from the western flank showing unsurvivable consequences.

Coordinates