Skiers remotely triggered Sunset Peak and Rocky Point from below. No one caught. Reported as a new snow avalanche

Advisory for November 10, 2002

Avalanche Conditions:

This is the classic setup for avalanche incidents and fatalities that occur nearly like clockwork each fall in Utah. First, we have a foot of weak, sugary depth hoar on the bottom, with the consistency of a pile of tortilla chips. Then, we have a foot of dense snow on top of the depth hoar, kind of like putting a cast iron frying pan on top of the tortilla chips. Next the wind created even denser and thicker slabs in the wind exposed areas—like adding two frying pans on top of the whole mess. Then today, we have another foot of what I call “sucker snow” on top, meaning that the light density snow suckers you into thinking everything is hunky dory until you see the whole slope underneath you shatter like a pane of glass. Yesterday, nearly everywhere I traveled above 9,000’ on the shady aspects, the slopes collapsed beneath me in these huge, booming whumphs and I could see cracks appearing up to 50 yards away, including above me. Yikes! Needless to say, with such obvious danger signs, I stayed on slopes of 25 degrees or less, in other words, slopes not steep enough to slide. Another thing that make these conditions especially dangerous, people tend to go to the shady, northerly-facing, upper elevation slopes because they have just enough base snow to avoid hitting rocks, and the slopes that are safer from rocks are exactly the same slopes that are dangerous for avalanches. You can’t win.

Today, if you want to come back alive, you should definitely avoid any slope above 9,000 feet, facing northwest, north and northeast, of 30 degrees or steeper because that’s where the old faceted snow existed before this storm overloaded it. I have reports from several incidents of people who have triggered avalanches in terrain that fits this description and reports of another half-dozen natural avalanches, some of them quite large. These reports came mostly from the Alta area. Speaking of which, Alta will be closed for avalanche control all day. People always forget this time of year that slopes at resorts that usually have moguls can and will produce life threatening avalanches because no one is doing any avalanche control. Remember, cross one at a time, don’t jump in on your partner and carry the usual backcountry rescue gear like beacons, shovels and probes.