Avalanche: Snake Creek

Observer Name
B
Observation Date
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Avalanche Date
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Region
Salt Lake » Snake Creek
Location Name or Route
Other Runs
Elevation
9,800'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Unknown
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
3"
Width
125'
Vertical
250'
Comments

Came across this slide today. Best guess would have had it happen on 1/3/15, with the East winds loading it and triggering it. There were snowmobile tracks in the vicinity, and it may have been triggered remotely. Slide appeared to have been initiated on the right flank in it's shallower area. In this area the slides weak layer was the mid pack facets. It then appeared to propagate downhill and step down at the middle of the crown. It went into the basal/early season facets leaving 4 inches of moderate sized Depth Hoar. As it descended over a rollover 80 feet downhill, it gouged out to the ground. Depth of slide at its apex was 34 inches, and this was after the last three days of warming. It had knife hard chunks in the debris and it's size was R2, D2. There was an inch or two of wind blown snow filling in the crown.

Coordinates