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Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Mill D North » Butler Fork » Reynolds Peak

Reynolds NE bowl

9,400'

Northeast

32°

Skier

Intentionally Triggered

Soft Slab

New Snow

New Snow/Old Snow Interface

3'

40'

500'

Kicked cornices above east aspect of Reynolds bowl while travelling up the N ridge. When a large piece of cornice was dropped (approx 6' x 4' x 4' chunk), a small soft slab was triggered that was 8-10" deep and 20' wide or so, and it only ran about 100' vertical down the east aspect. Higher up, I ski cut a diagonal line to the left, from the summit, across the usual wind roll that forms right below the peak, exiting back onto the N ridge approach track. The wind roll fractured 3'+ deep and propagated down the N ridge cornice line for about 40 feet, and to the east underneath the summit ridge cornice for another 25' or so to the east. This all triggered a soft slab below, 1.5' deep, that ran almost to the first bench at the bottom of the bowl. The debris fanned out at the bottom of the bowl, to about 50' wide, roughly 1.5-2' deep. A lot of snow moved, but this slope did not confine the debris, so the slide was less dangerous than it would have been on a more complex slope.