UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: Twin Lakes Pass

Observer Name
Greg Gagne with Dave Pease
Observation Date
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Grizzly Gulch » Twin Lakes Pass
Location Name or Route
Twin Lakes Pass
Elevation
10,300'
Aspect
East
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
18"
Width
150'
Vertical
350'
Comments

Remotely triggered a class 2 slide on steep aspect above Twin Lakes Pass. Was quite windy with blowing snow at the time, so very poor visibility. Got a small collapse and saw a bit of the adjacent slope had avalanched, and in a few seconds saw a sizable dust cloud at the bottom of the runout. The remotely-slide appeared to sympathetically pull out the adjacent slope. Did not get a good look at much of the bed surface, but the small part I saw showed a 30-45 cm (12-18") crown, and ran on faceted layer from the Christmas storm snow. Likely the facets in the rest of the snowpack remained intact.

Overall not as touchy conditions as I was expecting, and this was the only slope we could get to releas along Twin Lakes Pass ridgeline. This was despite most of the leeward, east-facing terrain having been wind-loaded from westerly winds.

It seems that the most dangerous slopes are those that have been wind-loaded. We were noticing winds well-down into drainages, so likely fresh drifts can be found well off of ridge lines.

No photo submitted as the visibility was nearly nil at the time.