Avalanche: Figure 8 Hill

Observer Name
B
Observation Date
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Avalanche Date
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Brighton Perimeter » Figure 8 Hill
Location Name or Route
Figure 8
Elevation
9,900'
Aspect
Northeast
Slope Angle
38°
Trigger
Skier
Trigger: additional info
Intentionally Triggered
Avalanche Type
Wet Loose
Avalanche Problem
Wet Snow
Weak Layer
Wet grains
Depth
12"
Width
300'
Vertical
350'
Comments

Brighton Base settled HN @ 1200: 10cm, with significantly more snow from 9500' and above: 25cm. Sustained S2 throughout the day with periods of S3. 10,000 HN at 1500 was at least 30cm. New snow old snow interface dirty with a firm/slightly frozen surface. New snow came in dense and damp for the first 10cm everywhere as well as above 9500'. There were escalating temperatures with a spike (and slight greenhousing) at 1300, and as a result the dry surface riding changed and got damp even at 10,000.

Intentional slope cuts on Figure 8 easily yielded "push-a-lanches" that were able to entrain significant amounts of snow while fanning out to wide gouging slides running on the old snow/new snow interface. The weak layer was wet grains and the warm temperatures during the afternoon hours appeared to saturate these grains even more at the old snow/new snow interface. These slides ran to the transitions and were moving moderately slow, and accumulating debris piles up to 1.5 meters deep.

Poor to no visibility did not allow good photos besides shot of debris.

Coordinates