Observer Name
BN
Observation Date
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Avalanche Date
Friday, April 11, 2014
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Stairs Gulch
Location Name or Route
Stairs Gulch
Elevation
9,600'
Aspect
Northwest
Slope Angle
43°
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Glide
Avalanche Problem
Gliding Snow
Weak Layer
Ground Interface
Depth
3'
Width
50'
Vertical
3,000'
Comments
We've been watching this glide crack open slowly over the last week of warm weather. It finally released sometime last night. Below is a progression over the last three days of the crack opening, getting bigger and finally avalanching.
The first two were taken Thursday afternoon 4/10. You can see the crack opening in the middle left of the first photo.
Comments
On Friday we saw the warmest temps so far this season and also 3 days in a row of superficial or no refreeze overnight. This was taken at 4pm Friday 4/11 and you can see that the crack has nearly doubled in size in 24hrs.
Comments
These last photos were taken Saturday 4/12 at 07:00. The avalanche likely happened sometime between 4pm and 6:30am. Glide sure is an interesting beast.
Coordinates