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Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Little Superior

Little Superior SE facing

10,300'

Southeast

36°

Unknown

Sympathetic Release

Hard Slab

Wind Drifted Snow

New Snow

18"

45'

1,250'

This slide was triggered a few minutes before my party reached the saddle directly east of Little Superior. The party of 2 at the saddle had seen it slide. They said they thought it was naturally triggered. However, another party was above the slide skinning up (on the south side of Little Superior), and I suspect that it could have also been remotely triggered by them. The winds were blowing about 20 to 30 m/h from the NNW onto the SE facing slope. Winds were not very prevalent in most areas and were mostly confined to this area and summits. The crown was about 18" to 24" deep. It ran with several slabs of snow remaining on the slope, but also entrained snow. Near the bottom of our descent on Two Trees, we observed a fresh debris pile that covered the tracks from yesterday. We expect that it ran about 1300 vertical feet or more. Time was a concern for my party so we did not investigate the slide further (hardness of the slab is an estimate). The party that (may have) triggered the slide, were not caught and traversed SW across the south side of Little Superior. We observed their tracks down the south facing nose of Little Superior. The wind affected snow seemed very pockety and there were many absolutely tremendous options to ski down that were much safer. Observer note: I counted about 30 headlamps at one time going up to Cardiff Pass and beyond. Typical wasangles day. It's important to pick routes carefully as well as be very observant and respectful about what and who is both above and below you.