Observer Name
Climaco
Observation Date
Friday, February 21, 2025
Avalanche Date
Friday, February 21, 2025
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline
Location Name or Route
Park City ridgeline
Elevation
9,900'
Aspect
North
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
18"
Width
800'
Vertical
800'
Comments
Lots to see today during my tour. I observed a very long crown descending from near the top of Squaretop, jumping over to the Wall of VooDoo and running down toward Redpine Lake. It appears this ripped out the new snow from our last storm cycle but did not step down from there. I could not see the debris from my vantage but given the length of the crown I assume it was at least most of the way to the lake. Crown highlighted in orange in my photo.
Comments
I dug a pit and performed an ECT at 9300 on a north facing slope of 32°. I had a failure of the new slow at ECT6, propagation at a weak layer roughly 18" from the surface at ECT14 and failure of the top 18" of the column at ECT25. Below this lay a dense slab down to 100cm below the surface and I was unable to provoke any reaction of this layer.
Taken together I'd say the new snow is currently still pretty reactive and ready to fail with relatively little provocation. This layer is about 18" thick so more than enough to wreck your day if it gets moving. While I was unable to provoke the thick slab below this into activity, it's pretty clear that if things step down into that, well . . . one better be watching from a safe distance.
Finally, 3-5mm surface facets are forming on this aspect, teeing up yet another weak layer for the next cycle. Yeah!
Comments
Lastly I observed an old slide in home run bowl on the east aspect which looks like it ripped the same new snow layer I found problematic on the north aspect. Altogether it looks to me like North through East is perhaps best left alone for a bit before we step out into bigger terrain.
