Avalanche: Park City Ridgeline

Today I was curious how the storm mixed things up. I was in this area yesterday and conducted an ECT at 9300 on a 28° N-NE slope and got propagation at 7 from the elbow, but only through the first 6” or so of new soft wind slab. Continuing the test did not elicit further evidence of instability. The 1-2 finger dense, 3' thick slab under the new snow was sitting on a 1’ thick layer of jingus sugar, going to the ground. I was sure things would be worse today.

Today it was blowing a steady 35, with gusts nearly strong enough to push me over as I traveled along the ridge between the Driveway and Music North. A huge amount of snow was in visible transport. Although viz was poor, oddly I noted no other signs of instability on the way out. However, on the way back just as I was thinking how quiet things were, this crack shot off to my left like a flashbulb, ran north south and dropped a smallish cornice to the E-SE. Debris ran about 50’ before stopping on a low angle shelf. High reactivity combined with new snow, wind and an observed PWL will keep me in low angle terrain for a bit.