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- Aug 9, 2007
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Audra and I hiked Stairs Gulch in Big Cottonwood Canyon a few weeks back. What a nice little hike and so close to home. The trailhead is only 2.8 miles up Big Cottonwood, just across the street form the Storm Mountain Picnic Area. The trail is a bit steep and rocky but not too bad. It picks up about 600 feet in .75 miles. A good half mile of that is following a long series of waterfalls, the highlight of the hike.
It was particularly cool to see the huge path of snow and avalanche debris so low in the canyon. Stairs Gulch is notorious for avalanches during the winter and even into spring. Two men died here from a glide avalanche on April 28th, 2001, well into spring and what most people wouldn't think of as avalanche season. According to the report I read, it is the only glide avalanche that has caused a fatality in Utah. Glide avalanches are not human triggered. They men were not very far past the foot of where the snow was when we visited around the same time. Scary stuff. Definitely a hike to save for summer and fall once the snow is gone.
Here are some pics:
Featured image for home page:
It was particularly cool to see the huge path of snow and avalanche debris so low in the canyon. Stairs Gulch is notorious for avalanches during the winter and even into spring. Two men died here from a glide avalanche on April 28th, 2001, well into spring and what most people wouldn't think of as avalanche season. According to the report I read, it is the only glide avalanche that has caused a fatality in Utah. Glide avalanches are not human triggered. They men were not very far past the foot of where the snow was when we visited around the same time. Scary stuff. Definitely a hike to save for summer and fall once the snow is gone.
Here are some pics:
Featured image for home page:
