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Avalanche: Banana Days

Observer Name
mark white
Observation Date
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Avalanche Date
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork » Banana Days
Location Name or Route
Banana Days
Elevation
10,100'
Aspect
Southeast
Slope Angle
40°
Trigger
Natural
Trigger: additional info
Cornice Triggered
Avalanche Type
Dry Loose
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
2'
Width
20'
Vertical
1,000'
Comments

While working my way through Days Fork today noticed a fairly large slide in SE facing Banana Days. Not sure of when it ran but there was no new snow on the debris. Could have been last night once it quit snowing or this morning when the cornice heated up. Trigger was a large natural cornice drop, dug down into the rock slab at first then released a 20ft wide pocket with a crown 2 to 3ft deep, probably the last two storms worth of snow. When it ran it entrained quite a bit of snow with the debris pile fanning out to about 100ft at the toe of the slide. Ran about 1000 vertical ft before it came to a stop on lower angled terrain. Not a slide you would want to be caught in. Curious about when it slid since it seemed quite fresh, thinking it might have run today with the warm temps heating the cornice enough to make it calve off. Was not in the area until 2:00pm Powder Birds might have a better idea on the timing since they were in that area long before me.

Coordinates