The Preliminary Report for Monday's Monte Cristo avalanche fatality is
HERE. Our condolences go out to the victim's friends and family and all those affected by this tragic accident. UAC staff visited the site on Tuesday and a full report is forthcoming.
Yesterday afternoon's frontal passage was as advertised: all theater and pyrotechnics; smoke and mirrors, a fireworks display. A carnival show.
But then you pull back the curtain and nothing is there.
In truth, most areas picked up an inch or two of graupel and temperatures mercifully dropped behind the cold front.
But now the term whiplash comes to mind: we have a storm on tap for tomorrow and - in-lockstep - temperatures have rebounded back into the mid to upper-20s and winds are again moderate to strong from the southwest. Skies have scattered clouds but I bet we'll see a few flurries by the afternoon. Tomorrow's storm will probably have an initial rain/snow line of up to 7500' (possibly as high as 8000') and it looks as if most of the precipitation will arrive warm and dense ahead of a suppertime cold front. 6-12" is a fair bet; maybe more, favoring upper Big Cottonwood and the south end of the PC ridgeline. Winds are to remain moderate to strong from the west-southwest for most the day. By evening, we'll see some light snow in the valley and mountain temps plummet to the low single digits by late weekend. The long term looks somewhat active.
It was fairly quiet in the backcountry yesterday. A natural cornice fall triggered a 1-2' deep and 150' wide soft slab along the PC ridgeline (Igloo Chutes area) on a steep east facing slope at 9200'. In mid-canyon of BCC, it looks as if a shallow wet slab peeled off the rocks in the Argenta Chutes and ran over a thousand feet down the path, leaving an impressive debris pile (B photo). The starting zone was north facing at roughly 8400'. With extensive control work, the Deer Valley avalanche teams triggered a monster of an avalanche that stepped to the ground near the Daly Bowl area.
