G. Gavin

Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Maybird Gulch

Obelisk

10,800'

East

37°

Skier

Intentionally Triggered

Soft Slab

Wind Drifted Snow

New Snow/Old Snow Interface

16"

60'

Upon approaching the Hogback via the Maybird side normal Hogum 200 ridge line skin track we noticed interesting wind loading patterns on the SE aspects. Collapsing, cracking, and soft wind slab failures were all observed upon approaching the ridge line. No cornice formation was noted on the top of the marked slide path although wind loaded patterns were apparent. A ski cut was performed and upon the skiers boots weighting the slope immediate collapse and failure of the entire wind slab caused the failure, and slide. The crown measured 48" on the SE aspect (skiers left) and 4" on the NE aspect (skiers right) of the chute. Failure layer was the interface of the old snow layer in contact with the new snow from this past weekends event of 2/8-2/10. S2 shears were observed on the bed surface. The slide ran its full track taking out most of the new snow in the chute itself, but leaving pockets on either side that were protected by rock outcroppings. The left over hangfire, and pockets within the chute did not slide when ski cut after the initial event. The toe of the debris pile was observed to be about 3ft deep.