Observer Name
Wessler, Kelly, Meisenheimer
Observation Date
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Avalanche Date
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Twin Lakes Pass
Location Name or Route
Twin Lakes Pass
Elevation
10,200'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
35°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
3'
Width
150'
Vertical
500'
Comments
Observed natural avalanche cycle from overnight. Best guess is this was a wind-loaded snow avalanche that failed on new/old snow interface. If it did step down deeper to older facets it had been filled in by the time we observed these avalanches. A snowpit on a nearby north facing slope at 10,000' showed 5' of snow with 2 faceted layers. One at the new/old interface and one about 1' off the ground.
It was hard to gauge exact width, but we observed three different avalanches that could have been easily connected a few hundred feet wide and ran anywhere from 400 to 600 hundred vertical feet. What was interesting was that the crown faces were approximately 30-40' below the ridgetops, which leads us to believe it was a wind-loaded avalanche from strong winds.
It was hard to gauge exact width, but we observed three different avalanches that could have been easily connected a few hundred feet wide and ran anywhere from 400 to 600 hundred vertical feet. What was interesting was that the crown faces were approximately 30-40' below the ridgetops, which leads us to believe it was a wind-loaded avalanche from strong winds.
We observed multiple instances of cracking and collapsing, including long reaching visible cracks just below the ridgeline.
Coordinates