Utah Avalanche Center

Avalanche was 300' wide and ran 250' vertical feet. Average depth was 1' and deepest was 2'. Skier triggered on the skiers left side. Not reported to the ASP. Failure was crust facet sandwich 64-70cm from the surface. Faceted stellars and mixed rounding facets were the weak layer. Scored a 4.

Noted dry loose avalanches on steeper east facing slopes both skier and natural triggered within the surface snow 4-6" deep. We did not see any wind-drifted snow issues and were on the lookout for this problem.

Moderate to strong east winds at 8600'. Ridgetop winds were strong from the west and northwest. Broken skies upon approach and then overcast to obscured skies with limited visibility to the ridgetops. Probing in numerous locations it did feel as though were about 10cm of softer (faceted?/mixed) grains on the ground.

Signs of recent avalanche activity on the gunners left side of the upper couloir. Lower section had signs of avalanche debris on bed surface. Throughout the tour we observed spin drift on the steep cliffs and while descending our lower boot pack was filled back in with dry loose snow falling down the cliffs.