Observation Date
12/15/2020
Observer Name
R. Kosinski
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver Fork » West Bowl
Location Name or Route
West Bowl
Comments
Started our tour at 0900 up Emmas which has enough snow to ascend but not descend. We skied multiple runs in West Bowl which showed no signs of instability. Throughout the day, the weather alternated between clear skies, cloudy, and strong snow flurries with a some strong wind at the end of the day. We decided to ascend the north aspect of West Bowl to get over to Davenport to leave. This decision would turn out to be pretty bad as we ascended into terrain primed and ready to avalanche. As we ascended higher, we started to get small cracks. When I moved out towards the north aspect of the bowl, large cracks began to form and collapsing began. I tried to move back to the northeast aspect but the cracking got worse, running up to 100' in both directions from my skis and large collapses began. A spiderweb of fractures appeared and I transitioned to drop lower. While dropping, a 20'x20' area had widespread cracking and moved a couple inches. Looking back, many of the classic psychological traps were there such as not wanting to loose ground, not understanding the significance of changes in slope angle and aspect, seeing tracks on the slope, wanting to get back to the car, being hungry and tired, and not fully recognizing the avalanche problems faced today. It was a serious wake up call to someone who has been skiing a lot of low danger days the last 7 months.


Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable