Avalanche: Monitors

Observer Name
mark white
Observation Date
Monday, December 21, 2015
Avalanche Date
Monday, December 21, 2015
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Monitors
Location Name or Route
South Monitor Bowl
Elevation
9,800'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
35°
Trigger
Natural
Trigger: additional info
Cornice Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
12"
Width
60'
Vertical
800'
Comments

We were standing on the ridge line of South Monitor Bowl kind of in awe of the massive amounts of wind loading going on and witnessed a cornice calve off naturally and start a new snow slide. The location of the slide is exactly where I triggered a slide while skiing there two weeks ago. The weak layer was the rime crust from Thursday late night around 50 or 60ft wide and about a foot deep, it entrained all the new light density snow sitting on the rime crust from yesterdays storm and spread out a bit on its decent to the flatter terrain. I was kind of thinking it might steep down below the rime crust but the new light density did not yet have enough weight or a slab.

Photos: tough day for photos but got one looking down on the slide, and one with the slide and the whole bowl