UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: Park City Ridgeline

Observer Name
Kikkert
Observation Date
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Avalanche Date
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline
Location Name or Route
PC Ridgeline Upper Sheep Shit Ridge
Elevation
9,600'
Aspect
North
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Remotely Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
3'
Width
125'
Comments

Remotely triggered walking along the ridgeline. There was nobody on the slope. Depth was 2-3' deep failing near the ground on early December facets. Ran into dense trees and was unable to determine how far it ran, at least 200 vertical. Would have been very high consequence terrain to get caught in.

Test pits in the area, including right next to the crown, showed stubborn ECT results, but full propagation, ECTP 25 Q2. Provided further reinforcement that any propagation in tests, even if results are stubborn, indicates avalanches are possible.

One other note, Park City ridgeline seemed to receive the lion's share of the storm, with depths of up to 15". Although the snow was very light density, and there was nearly no wind, clearly there was enough water weight to activate things (there was an old skin track that had clearly crossed the slope prior to the storm).

Coordinates