Observer Name
duncan, udall, Donaldson
Observation Date
Friday, March 31, 2017
Avalanche Date
Friday, March 31, 2017
Region
Provo » Provo Canyon » North Fork Provo R. » UFO Bowls
Location Name or Route
UFO Bowls #2
Elevation
10,000'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
42°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Dry Loose
Avalanche Problem
New Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow
Depth
14"
Width
30'
Vertical
400'
Caught
1
Carried
1
Comments
Small slide in new snow at 10,000'. Triggered by second of three skiers on steep north east facing slope. 14" crown. Skier carried about 30' before coming to a stop on bed surface below some larger trees. Snow continued to flush around the trees and down the slope several hundred feet. Fairly heavy snow packed a punch and could have caused injury.
Poor visibility prevented photos. The poor visibility also obscured red flags. As we continued skiing, there signs of many natural releases in the storm snow. We chose the steeper bowl to ski today but did not recognize the deeper than anticipated storm snow.
We have been sloppy lately tearing down the slope 3 or 4 skiers at a time while repeating the phrase from a recent blog "nothing ever bad happened". It was a learning experience to push the limit a bit and see the snow react. Back at the car we learned one beacon was not turned on. We will be changing our pretour check list for next time.
Coordinates