Avalanche

Avalanche: Stairs Gulch

BNSalt Lake
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Quick report

Slope Angle
43°

Avalanche

Slab Width
15 m
Weak Layer
Ground Interface
Trigger Type
Natural
Vertical Fall
914 m
Avalanche Type
Glide
Slab Thickness
91 cm
Start Zone Aspect
Northwest
Avalanche Problem
Gliding Snow
Start Zone Elevation
2926 m

We've been watching this glide crack open slowly over the last week of warm weather. It finally released sometime last night. Below is a progression over the last three days of the crack opening, getting bigger and finally avalanching.

The first two were taken Thursday afternoon 4/10. You can see the crack opening in the middle left of the first photo.

On Friday we saw the warmest temps so far this season and also 3 days in a row of superficial or no refreeze overnight. This was taken at 4pm Friday 4/11 and you can see that the crack has nearly doubled in size in 24hrs.

These last photos were taken Saturday 4/12 at 07:00. The avalanche likely happened sometime between 4pm and 6:30am. Glide sure is an interesting beast.