Observer Name
Eric and Amy Flygare
Observation Date
Monday, December 29, 2014
Avalanche Date
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Region
Logan » Logan River » Tony Grove » Naomi Trail
Location Name or Route
Brokeback Mountain
Elevation
8,900'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
12"
Width
50'
Vertical
250'
Comments
We rode in the Tony Grove Area Today. We spotted one Avalanche that happened some time during yesterday’s storm. The Avy was on Brokeback Mountain, an East facing 38ish degree slope half way between the lake and Hunters Cave. The slide ran about 250 vert and was 50 feet wide involving the new snow and likely started from a wind deposits overloading the new snow at the top of the slide path.
We dug several pits in a similar area to see how the stability looked. Each pit was dug on an East to Northeast facing, 26-30 degree slope at around 8500 feet. The total snow depth was 60-65 inches. Compression tests failed at 16-20 taps at a layer 20 inches deep. Another compression test failed at 27 taps down 36 inches on faceted snow that developed during the long early December dry spell. The 36 inch deep failure was very clean. The Extended Column Test did not produce any failures after significant pounding on the column.
All in all it was an incredible day to be in the mountains. We rode slopes facing all directions and had excellent boarding (and slednecking) on all of them.
Coordinates