UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Avalanche: Stairs Gulch

Observer Name
Adam OKeefe
Observation Date
Friday, April 1, 2016
Avalanche Date
Friday, April 1, 2016
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Stairs Gulch
Location Name or Route
Stairs Gulch
Elevation
9,500'
Aspect
North
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Unknown
Avalanche Type
Hard Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Depth
4"
Width
20'
Vertical
200'
Comments
Watched a party of 4 drop into Stairs Gulch, dropped in myself a few minutes later. Pulled out a few small, manageable winds slabs as I descended, then encountered a much more substantial variety set off by the party ahead of me. The clue here was the solitary track ON the debris, three sets of erased tracks, and no other tracks in Stairs. Hopefully someone from this group can shed more light on the experience, though I snapped a fast pic (so fast the shutter apparently didn't open entirely..) which pretty well sums it up. Debris ran over a near vertical pitch of blue ice, and some hundred plus feet beyond. There is a substantial debris pile beneath the pinch that the eagle eyed may notice; however, most of that is from a large release off the east facing upper wall days prior. There has also been substantial recent shedding in Stairs, the other photo displays some of this.