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Thread: Cottonwood Canyon/Little Cottonwood Canyon

  1. #1

    Cottonwood Canyon/Little Cottonwood Canyon

    Is this an OK time to visit these canyons? I'm thinking only of the short hikes, as my wife can't walk very far. How are conditions right now?
    Stan

    Check out my photo gallery at www.pbase.com/sparker1

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  3. #2
    Have not been up there recently, but you should be ok for most of the Lake Blanche trail, Dog Lake, Butler Fork, Cardiff Fork (Donut Falls). Maybe some stuff in Brighton. In Little Cottonwood, Red Pine should be clear for most of the hike, maybe Albion Basin, Secret Lake, Twin Lakes.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Wasatch
    Have not been up there recently, but you should be ok for most of the Lake Blanche trail, Dog Lake, Butler Fork, Cardiff Fork (Donut Falls). Maybe some stuff in Brighton. In Little Cottonwood, Red Pine should be clear for most of the hike, maybe Albion Basin, Secret Lake, Twin Lakes.
    Thanks much. We'll giver 'er a try.
    Stan

    Check out my photo gallery at www.pbase.com/sparker1

  5. #4
    I went up Stairs Gulch the other day, about a quarter to a half mile up I ran into some big snow piles. Trails going up the canyons on the north facing side have much higher potential to be covered in snow as the sun doesn't hit them for much of the day. South side trails like Mill B North Fork Trail, Willow Creek Lake, Lisa Falls, etc... are going to be much more likely to not have massive amounts of snow on them. If there is snow though it's usually pretty compact and easy to walk on, just don't go too early in the morning if temps have been low overnight or else it's frozen solid and really difficult to walk on.

    Eric.

  6. #5
    Thanks for your input. In the end, we drove up Provo Canyon, Little Cottonwood Canyon and Big Cottonwood Canyon, but did no hiking. Just walking around at various stops for photography took all our time. I can see why everyone enjoys the trails around there.
    Stan

    Check out my photo gallery at www.pbase.com/sparker1

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by shaggy125
    If there is snow though it's usually pretty compact and easy to walk on, just don't go too early in the morning if temps have been low overnight or else it's frozen solid and really difficult to walk on.
    Eeek. This is Stairs Gulch...best to go in the spring when its frozen solid and temps at night are below freezing. Otherwise...be very careful, this gulch is a well known killer.

    -Brian in SLC

    From the UAC:

    Stairs Gulch Avalanche Fatalities,
    Big Cottonwood Canyon, Wasatch Range, Utah
    April 28, 2001
    Updated report submitted by Bruce Tremper
    Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center
    May 29, 2001
    2 attached photographs

    Synopsis
    Martin Gleich, 38, a Doctor from Salt Lake City and Scott Dull, 39, also a Doctor from Eagle River, Alaska were killed Saturday, April 28th in Stairs Gulch, a tributary of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City. The pair left the trailhead about 3:30 to 4:00 am to climb Stairs Gulch to Twin Peaks with ice axes and crampons, rope and snowshoes but no beacons (they did not own beacons). They did not return by their 11:00 am planned return time and the Sheriff was notified that afternoon.

    That evening, a Salt Lake County Search and Rescue team walked up both Stairs Gulch and the nearby Broad's Fork looking for the missing climbers. They discovered fresh avalanche debris in Stairs Gulch and quickly found Martin Gleich's boot sticking out of the snow about 100 yards above the toe of the debris at an elevation of about 6400 feet. His head was buried about 4 feet deep and he had a couple of lacerations on his head. Medical examiners later determined he died by asphyxia. After finding Gliech's body, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue was called, which is a volunteer group composed of avalanche professionals from northern Utah ski areas. They responded with personnel from Snowbird (the only ski area open at that late date) along with a rescue dog. The avalanche dog easily located the second victim, Scott Dull, about a 10-minute hike above the first victim at an elevation around 6,900 feet. Although he was buried 8-10 feet deep, part of his fleece shirt was torn to shreds and it stretched out about 10 feet with part of it on the surface, which may be why the dog was able to locate him so quickly. Scott Dull had multiple fractures and the medical examiner reported that he was killed by trauma. The accident appears to have occurred as the pair ascended.

    Avalanche Conditions
    Stairs Gulch is the steepest and longest avalanche path in the Wasatch Range near Salt Lake City. It has a vertical fall of about 1650 vertical meters (5,000 feet) and the upper section is composed almost entirely of 45-55 degree sloping rock slabs. Because it is such steep and large terrain, very few skiers or boarders ever enter Stairs Gulch in winter but climbers sometimes practice their alpine skills there in spring after the snow stabilizes.

    On Sunday morning, the day after the accident, I ascended the ridge to the east of Stairs Gulch to look at the avalanche, since the route up the bottom of Stairs Gulch was not safe because of continued very warm spring weather. I noticed that the steep rock slabs on the west side of the drainage had recently produced two large glide avalanches with several other smaller avalanches and the snow that had not yet released had numerous glide cracks and appeared to be on the verge of releasing. While I was on the ridge I saw one smaller glide avalanche release and descend onto the debris and stop just above where the upper victim was recovered the previous night.

    The avalanche that most likely caused the accident was a glide avalanche about 200 meters wide (700 feet) with a fracture depth averaging about a meter or a meter and a half (5 feet). These glide avalanches occurred on northeast facing, rock slab of about 45-55 degrees. The crown was around 10,000 feet in elevation and the avalanche descended 3700 vertical feet to an elevation of 6,300 feet, running about a mile in length. (see photos).

    (The media, including local news, CNN and the Weather Channel, incorrectly reported the avalanche to be 30 feet deep and 2 miles wide--obviously hyperbolic numbers since 30 feet of snow has probably not existed in Utah since the Pleistocene and Stairs Gulch is less than a mile wide.)

    On Thursday, two days before the accident, I skied up Broad's Fork, the next drainage to the east, and noticed three recent, large, glide avalanches off the steep rock slabs with one more on the steep rock slabs in Mill B South, the next drainage to the east

    Glide avalanches are relatively unusual for Utah but they do occur regularly each spring on the steep rock slabs in radical terrain such as Stairs Gulch and Broad's Fork usually in a time window of about two weeks after the dry snow turns wet for the first time of the season. They occur when percolating water lubricates the interface between the snow and ground causing the entire snowpack to slowly slide like a glacier on the underlying ground, often over the course of days, until it suddenly releases. They occur mostly in very steep rock slabs during very warm weather. You can easily recognize them by gaping crevasses on their upper boundaries and a rumpled-up look on their lower boundaries. Glide avalanches are very difficult to trigger-even with explosives--and like a stubborn mule, they tend to release only when they are ready, more or less randomly in time, kind of like a calving iceberg or icefall. Paradoxically, they show a slight preference to release during the coldest part of the day, or during a freeze following a protracted period of melting, which would fit the pattern of this avalanche. These were average sized avalanches for Stairs Gulch and are a regular occurrence each spring.

    Statistically, glide avalanches kill very few people because 1) they are difficult to trigger, 2) the warm and soggy conditions that produce glide avalanches often discourage people from traveling on snow, and 3) most people instinctively avoid crossing beneath them, as they look quite dangerous even to people who don't know much about avalanches. This is the first known fatality from a glide avalanche in Utah and possibly the first in the U.S.

    How it May have Happened
    I doubt if the pair triggered the avalanche. First, glide avalanches are notoriously difficult to trigger, second the avalanche had a large amount of volume-much more than the volume produced by a wet, loose avalanche they may have triggered on their likely route. Plus, there was no obvious avalanche on their planned climbing route that could account for the volume of debris. Third, all of the glide avalanches I noticed the following morning were on rock slabs to the west side of their most likely route. The climbing route usually follows the gully the whole way since all other routes are quite steep and difficult, especially the routes that would have crossed the glide avalanches. Fourth, Martin's body was found near the toe of the debris, indicating that it may have come down on them from above.

    The evidence indicates that the accident occurred early in the morning when the pair was on their way up. The evidence includes the following:


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