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Avalanche: South Monitor Bowl

Observer Name
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Observation Date
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Avalanche Date
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Park City Ridgeline » Monitors » South Monitor Bowl
Location Name or Route
South Monitor Bowl
Elevation
9,900'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
36°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Weak Layer
Facets
Depth
2'
Width
40'
Vertical
500'
Comments
Went to South Monitor today hoping that the slab from last weekend had rotted out or at least adjusted to the weight and relaxed. Windslabs on weak snow were our main concern. We walked the ridge until we got to the most benign entry I know on the skiers left side of the bowl. Knowing this bowl somewhat intimately it was weird to see a steep convex rollover where there isn't usually one, obviously it was a wind pillow formed last weekend, the only question was would it be reactive to the weight of a skier and was the slab connected down the slope. It took about 3 really hard jumps to trigger it and it broke out like a hardslab. Once it started traveling down the slope it was obvious that there wasn't a connected slab down slope and it just gouged into the rotting snowpack and traveled around 500ft down the line. The crown was 2 feet at the deepest and tapered off on both flanks. We skied both sides on the flanks and didn't experience any other activity. The weak layer was large grain facets at the bottom of the pack.
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