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Show II. Terrain Analysis A. Highway Slides The slide paths that primarily threaten the access road to Alta have southern exposures. Storms that cause the quickest buildup of a hazard are those that have winds with northerly components. Mount Superior can slide as several paths, or these paths may fracture at once as a very large slide. ( Figure 1.) Early in the season, there are extensive terrain barriers that tend to hold the snow in place. Once these barriers become buried, usually some time in late December, Superior can and will slide frequently during a major storm. It takes a large slide to cross the road underneath Superior; in a normal winter, Superior will cross the road two or three times. As the season progresses, and as the snow lies deeper on Mount Superior, winds with other than northern orientations seem to build a hazard quicker than in the early season. In addition to the four major slide paths that run off Mount Superior, there are smaller chutes that run from the cliffs on the shoulder of the mountain to the west of the main paths. These can, on occasion, also cross the highway, although this is much more rare. |