Avalanche: Moonlight

Observer Name
Kobernik
Observation Date
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Avalanche Date
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mineral Fork » Moonlight
Location Name or Route
Upper Moonlight
Elevation
9,600'
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Natural
Comments

Loose snow sluffing off of ridgeline over rocks popped out an older slab. Didn't get to the fracture line but could see exposed rocks. That combined with the shallow nature of the snowpack in Mineral makes me suspect it broke into facets. It definitely involved more than just the new snow and took out at least the wind loaded snow from last weekend. There was about 6" of new snow on top of the debris which puts the occurrence time around 8am this morning. The debris pile was fairly healthy sized.

Coordinates