Michael Boman

Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon

Broads Fork

10,400'

East

38°

Wet Slab

Wet Snow

4'

300'

1,000'

While hiking the Broads Fork trail to below The Saddle (below Twin Peaks), I observed several avalanches that had recently run. In fact, it appeared that essentially all easterly facing slopes had avalanched, likely during the excessive heat of mid to late May. The picture below shows one such avalanche with large chunks of snow that had apparently ran off the back side of Twin Peaks. Large, significant and destructive.

I also observed long running avalanche paths on the Broads Fork trail proper. There were many branches and/or small trees in the debris pile. In fact, Broads Fork Creek was covered by the avalanches and was beginning to break through as it's water blasted down canyon.