Triggered by children playing near a gully feature.
Avalanche Conditions:
Yesterday, despite poor visibility, natural, remotely triggered and human triggered slides were reported from the backcountry. Naturals were observed mid track on many of the southeast facing gully walls in Little Cottonwood, in the Willows and on the east face of Reynolds in Big Cottonwood and along the Park City ridgeline in West Monitor and near the Sound of Music. The slides averaged 1 to 2’ deep, were 60’ to 400’ wide, with easterly facing slopes the most active. Remotely and human triggered slides were reported from the backcountry near Sundance and Canyons on similar slopes. These slides were on wind loaded, northeast, east and southeasterly facing slopes 35 degrees and steeper, were 100 to 400’ wide and 1 to 2’ deep. Many of these slides are breaking just above a buried ice crust. Details on the 364-1591 line. Check out these photos of recent slides. (Photo 1 - Willows) (Photo 2 - Thaynes )
Today, the avalanche activity will be even more wide spread. The denser warm and wind blown snow has overloaded the lighter snow. On moderate to steep slopes with wind drifts, expect natural, remotely triggered and easily human triggered slides 2 to 3 feet deep, with the potential to break hundreds of feet wide. While the wind drifts will be most common on northeast, east and southeast facing slopes, they will be found on all aspects, well off ridgelines, and around terrain features such as gully walls and sub ridges. Even at low elevations, isolated pockets of wind drifted snow could be triggered in steep gullies and on rollovers that have seen wind loading from the strong low elevations winds. Even out of the wind affected terrain, sluffing and new snow soft slabs up to 2 feet deep are possible on any steep slope. It will be possible to trigger slides from lower angle terrain today, so also watch the steepness of slopes that you are connected to.
Once triggered, the new snow slides could break into deeper weak layers, creating much larger and more dangerous slides up to 5 feet deep. These deeper slides are also possible on slopes of all aspects, and especially on steep, rocky slopes with a thin snowpack.