Utah Avalanche Center

Natural wind slab avalanche failed on faceted snow above 2/14 rain-crust.

The basal facet layer is stronger than I expected, and I found it non-reactive in this pit. Quite a bit of nicely hardening February snow. Depth of slab making it hard to test and likely difficult for a person to trigger an avalanche.

Dug another quick hole down the ridge on the same aspect at 9700 and got ECTP 9 at 80cm (same layer as ECTP in this pit) Poor structure.

Unsure of grain type at 215. Maybe some facets. Maybe some rimed columns. Whatever they are, they spilled across the crystal card like facets.

Fresh and soft snow above 2/3 rain-crust saturated by heavy rain.

Similar profile at two other locations at 7500 feet East (HS 115) and 8143 feet NE (HS 130). The NE location had some rounding fx's at ground. Not major concern but there. Consistent ECTN at fx's under ice crust at 103cm. PST's on this layer were about 75/100 end.