Avalanche: Mirror Lake Highway

Observer Name
Ted Scroggin
Observation Date
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Avalanche Date
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Region
Uintas » Mirror Lake Highway
Location Name or Route
Highway 150, north slope, mile marker 36
Elevation
9,800'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
36°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Weak Layer
Density Change
Depth
14"
Width
80'
Vertical
40'
Comments

I combined a few of these natural slides since they all had similar characteristics. Heavy wet snow continued to fall today which is overloading buried weak snow. Natural sluffing within the new snow was evident all the way up the highway today.

Comments

As I gained elevation and got into steeper rocky and shallow weak snow these 12-14" natural soft slab avalanches were observed. These slides appeared to be failing on a density change within the storm snow.

Coordinates