Observer Name
Ambler, Porter, Zimmerman-Wall
Observation Date
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Snowbird periphery » Miller Hill
Location Name or Route
Miller Hill
Elevation
10,000'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Snowboarder
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
12"
Width
50'
Vertical
150'
Caught
1
Snow Profile Comments
We had a stale windslab of varying depth and hardness( 4f - pencil) averaging about a foot deep. At it's deepest it was around 18". This slab was resting on a decomposing crust with a few cm's of 1mm nsf on either side. Our avalanche broke both above and below the crust across the crown.
Comments
A lot of the debris was 1f to pencil, big scary looking chunks. We estimated this slide to be a D 1.5. Despite being relatively small, going for a longer ride with these sizeable blocks of pencil hard snow would be unpleasant. The slab broke above the snowboarder but he was able to skirt off the top of the slab to a safe spot. It broke where the terrain rolled from low 30's to around 38 degrees. Pictured below are photos taken conveniently just before and after the avalanche. The aspect was more ENE around 70 degrees.
Comments
pictured here is the debris pile and the crown. linked below is a great video showing our findings
Video
Video
Coordinates