From Avalanche Advisory December 17, 2003

Avalanche Conditions:

Yesterday, a lot of people jumped into steep slopes of all kinds and there was only one human triggered avalanche we know of. Early yesterday morning, a lone skier triggered a soft slab avalanche in Toledo Chute, which is an east-southeast facing slope across the street from Alta. We don’t have a first hand report, but the tracks tell most of the story. Luckily it broke at their feet and they were not caught, but it entrained copious amounts of snow and put down a very deep debris pile at the bottom you wouldn’t want to be buried in. The fracture was about a foot deep, 40 feet wide on a steep 40-45 degree slope and it broke either just above or just below the rain crust from last Saturday. Click HERE for photos. In general, though, the weak layers seem to have adjusted to their loads and the snow remains well behaved after being skied and ridden by many dozens of volunteer stability testers. I’m still worried, however, about some of the steep slopes with wind deposits, mostly on the above tree line, wind exposed ridges where they still feel slabby and suspicious to me. Also of note, if you’re headed outside of the Salt Lake area mountains, as our staff has gotten out after the storm, we’ve noticed several large natural avalanches that occurred on Monday in shallower snowpack areas. In Logan, one avalanche broke 4 feet deep and 300 feet wide on an old layer of faceted snow and in the Uinta Mountains there were a number of smaller pockets breaking to the ground on depth hoar. These areas with a shallower snowpack may be a notch higher on the avalanche danger scale than in the Salt Lake Mountains. Be sure to check the local advisory before you go. By the way, if you get out early, each day we update our more detailed and early morning report with preliminary information at 6:00 am at (801) 364-1591.