Check out our Holiday Auction - Sign Up for the Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW)

Avalanche: Wolverine Cirque

Observer Name
Dominic Conigliaro, S Kern
Observation Date
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Avalanche Date
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Region
Salt Lake » Big Cottonwood Canyon » Wolverine Cirque
Location Name or Route
Wolverine Cirque-- The Huge Chute
Elevation
10,400'
Aspect
East
Trigger
Skier
Depth
12"
Width
70'
Comments
My partner and I were investigating the cornice on top of the huge chute and making a determination about wether or not to ski. While investigating my partner felt a collapse. This collapse propagated down and into the chute (no cornice failure) remote triggering a wind slab about 1' deep (first picture). We did not ski the chute. With later investigation from the bottom of the cirque we could see that the failure propagated the majority of the chute and ran the full duration to the base of the cirque, roughly 600'. I would put it at D1.5 and R3 (Picture 2). We were caught off guard by how far away we triggered the slide from, and how wide the crown propagated within the chute.