UDOT PLANNED AVALANCHE CLOSURES!!

Observation: Broads Fork

Observation Date
1/9/2025
Observer Name
mark white
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Broads Fork
Location Name or Route
Broads Fork
Weather
Sky
Few
Wind Direction
East
Wind Speed
Strong
Weather Comments
Cold and mostly clear with stong E winds in the upper drainage.
Snow Characteristics
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Wind Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
Powder in more protected terrain, wind crust and wind slab in the exposed terrain.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Recent Avalanches
Wind Loading
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Comments
Went up Broads Fork today curious as to what was happening up in the upper drainage haven't visited it yet this season. Went up with a plan to turn around at the overlook if things didn't seem safe. Must have been quite awhile since someone has been up there, broke trail from the bridge on. You could feel the wind down lower but it wasn't very strong, once I got to the overlook the E wind was cranking in the upper drainage, moving snow on the high peaks and down lower in the drainage. The first thing I noticed was 2 fairly fresh avalanches on the W-facing slopes just N of the Big West. Both slides looked like they ran on the PWL near the ground, the upper one hit the bottom of the Diving Board in the drainage bottom the other stopped on the bench. I think both slides were caused by loading from the E winds on Tuesday and today. Not sure of the timing but seemed recent. The big NE-E facing runs were getting a lot of wind and there were visible crowns all over the place, hard to tell the timing or depth of any of them. One notable one was on the Blue Ice with debris making it to the drainage bottom. I rolled off the overlook to the run out of Bonkers to get a better look at the slides on the W facing and got a large collapse in the flats and turned around and bailed out on proceeding any further. Lots of unknowns in the upper drainage and with no idea of the extent of avalanching and if the weak layer is still intact or got cleaned out, and also if slopes have been reloaded by the wind seemed prudent to let it sit for a bit.
Video
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
Coordinates