Magog 2-21-05

                                                      (Images from 2-23-05)

          A human triggered avalanche on the east face of Magog occurred on the afternoon of February 21, 2005.  The slide was triggered by a snowmobiler low on the slope.  Luckily, he was able to turn and ride out of the way as snow from the broad avalanche funneled into a narrow draw at the bottom of the slope.   The surprisingly soft deposition stopped less than a hundred feet above the rest of the party who were watching in the line of fire.

    The crown of the broad avalanche was 1-2 feet deep and ~1000 feet wide. Deposition piled up deeply in the narrowing draw and covered a few football field lengths worth of terrain.

       On the south side, the slab included 2 storms worth of snow, failing on a thin layer of intact graupel and small facets at a crusty interface buried early on in the windy Valentines Day storm. Here, I am examining the southern flank of the avalanche.

               The East Face of Magog averages about 40 degrees in slope steepness and is at about 9500' in elevation. The avalanche ran approximatly 700 vertical feet and piled up deeply since the snow on the wide slope was all funnelled into a narrow neck.

      I mistakenly thought that this was a natural avalanche, but I was wrong.  I was confused by all the tracks on the large pile of deposition, and I could not imagine anyone surviving an avalanche like this, especially being triggered from so low on the slope.  If you trigger an avalanche in the backcountry, we'd really like to hear about it.  The advisories we produce can only be based on what we know.   The information you provide to the Utah Avalache Center is information that we can relay on to other wintertime backcountry adventurers, and in some cases it may save lives. An event like this is certainly of great interest and importance to literally thousands of people   Of-course the identities of all our observers are kept confidential.  

                  I observed several other intentionally(?) triggered and unreported avalanches on steep short slopes in the Magog area.

           These small slides, around a foot deep and less than 100' feet wide, could be fun to trigger and then ride-out, but they wouldn't be so fun if you were on foot.  There is also a possibility that you might trigger a much more dangerous avalanche running on exististing deeply buried weak layers.