Avalanche: Days Draw

Observer Name
Mark A
Observation Date
Friday, January 21, 2011
Avalanche Date
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Days Fork » Days Draw
Location Name or Route
Days Draw
Elevation
8,400'
Aspect
East
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Unknown
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
12"
Width
50'
Vertical
300'
Comments

This is a guesstimate observation, as we didn't have time to go poke around (hoping someone else up there will give the slide a more thorough examination), but our party observed a slide in Days Draw as we were exiting Days Fork towards the Spruces. We had not skied in the area and only observed it from our vantage point at the bottom of the drainage, but it looked to be approximately 50' wide and to have run 300' or so. Best guess is that it was new snow sliding off of the rain crust. It looked to have begun on a steep rollover above a small cliff band and propagated and run from there, filling one of the small gullies on that slope. Any guess regarding the trigger would be purely speculative.

Coordinates