Redd

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Sunset Peak

Sunset Peak

10,500'

North

38°

Skier

Intentionally Triggered

Soft Slab

New Snow

New Snow/Old Snow Interface

12"

200'

600'

10 to 15" of New snow from Jan 17/18/19 storms, much of it wind transported from the SSW winds during the storms. The combination of storm/wind slab is what slid. The bed surface was weak small facets, likely from diurnal recrystallization during the warm days we had last week. HS 125cm with ECTN4 RP 12" deep from a quick test pit on the crown at the trigger point. Slab was fist hard, and bed was 4 finger, but sugary. I was surprised that it propagated across the entire slope, from the ridge I ski cut in from, all the way across to the rocks on the other side of the slope.

Biggest problem wasn't the avalanche itself, but the group of 3 skiers who dropped right down the gut of the ~150feet of hangfire above me while I dug my snow test pit. I clearly communicated that they needed to wait until I was out from under the hangfire, but they dropped and centerpunched it anyways. They broke out deltas from the slab, but luckily didn't drop the whole upper portion of the slope, as it would have come down right on top of me. When I got to the bottom and told them what they had done was NOT COOL, they belittled my avi experience (I'm avi 1 & 2 certified), and said that when I eventually know what I'm doing, I'll understand why they were right to ski down on top of me in very clear avalanche conditions. Pissed me off to no end that they would assume I'm some Jerry, and try to make me feel bad about their disregard of standard BC etiquette and safety protocol. If you were part of the irresponsible trio that dropped on top of me from Sunset at about 2:40 pm and then climbed Tuscarora afterwards, shame on you.

I ski cut in just below the rocky portion at the very top of the summit, as I knew the potential to slide was there, and didn't want to take a ride over the rocks. I ski cut in over a small convexity towards a tree on the slope. The soft "pop" of the fracture shooting forward and backward of my skis wasn't super loud. At first, the crack and slide was limited to 20 to 30 feet in front of and behind be, leaving me standing comfortably on the bed surface. After sliding down 50 feet or so, it propagated across the entire slope, and everything below me slid. It only looked to get going 30 mph or so, maybe a little faster when it funneled into the small gully at the bottom. The debris pile looked to be 3 to 4 feet deep, and ran full track, nearly to Lake Catherine.

Bed surface was still fairly soft. I skied a small portion of it, and then dipped off and skied the powder parallel the slide.