Observer Name
Staples & Champion
Observation Date
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Avalanche Date
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork » Chicken Sh#! Ridge
Location Name or Route
Chicken Sh#! Ridge
Elevation
9,200'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
30°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Unintentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
10"
Width
40'
Vertical
200'
Caught
1
Comments
First - We triggered an avalanche on a steep rocky section of this slope about 20 feet wide at our feet. What surprised us was how the slide just kept going.
Second - We moved to a less steep part and smaller part of the slope to descend. The snowpack had been consistently breaking near our skis during our descent of CSR. What surprised me in this case was the slab broke about 10-15 ft above me. It was very slow moving and easy to move off the slab.
What was different? There was very noticable difference between these elevations near the bottom of CSR and higher on the ridge.
- The Cracking and collapsing was more subtle higher on the ridge. Lower on the ridge the cracking was much more obvious and the cracks were inches wide.
- The reason was that the snowpack was thinner near the bottom of the ridge. Having a thinner snowpack created much bigger and striated facets (4-6mm), thus a much weaker layer of facets under the new snow.
Read more in our observation HERE
Photo - Nikki standing on the other side of the slide.
Video
Coordinates