Avalanche: Silver Fork

Observer Name
L. Dunn
Observation Date
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Avalanche Date
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Silver Fork
Location Name or Route
Silver Fork
Elevation
10,000'
Aspect
North
Slope Angle
Unknown
Trigger
Natural
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Avalanche Problem
Wind Drifted Snow
Weak Layer
New Snow/Old Snow Interface
Depth
Unknown
Width
50'
Vertical
400'
Comments

We saw 2 avalanches in Silver Fork today. One came out of the top of a steep north facing chute just west of East Bowl Pass. This was a natural that released sometime around noon on the 24th, between our first and second runs in the area. The picture shows a well defined crown in a wind loaded portion at the top of the chute. We did not go examine the crown, but it was likely around 6-12", the slide was shallow and new snow only. It ran approximately 400 vertical feet. The second avalanche occurred sometime on the 23rd, based on a little new snow on top of the debris, in the East Bowl of Silver Fork. The photo shows the debris pile. There were some old tracks from the previous day still visible along the side of the avalanche. Its hard to know whether there were other tracks that were covered by the slide, or not, and we could not determine where the top of the slide was located, but it seems to have originated up in the rocks at the top of the bowl.