Avalanche: West Willow

Observer Name
Jim M
Observation Date
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Avalanche Date
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Willows » West Willow
Location Name or Route
Willow, West Monitor, South Monitor, No Name
Elevation
9,700'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
36°
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
8"
Width
Unknown
Vertical
900'
Comments
Reached PC Ridge around 9:30am and noticed quite a bit of activity in West Monitor. I wasn’t around to witness these happen but whether intentional or not, all looked to be human triggered. (See photo with tracks going in) Although the slides were maybe 6-10”, they were wide and entrained quite a bit of snow. Possibly some very ambitious folks up earlier than myself set these off but more likely they happened yesterday. I wasn’t finding things to be as reactive in the steeper part of South Monitor. I was getting decent, but manageable sloughs in No Name with afternoon heating. Warmed up enough for me to call it a day by 1:00pm. 1st 3 photos of W. Monitor, 4th of minor sloughing in S. Monitor, 5th of more active sloughing in No Name...
Coordinates