Incident

Avalanche: Wolverine Cirque

The Snowy Torrents & UAC StaffSalt Lake
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Avalanche

Trigger Type
Skier
Trigger Detail
Unintentionally Triggered
Start Zone Aspect
North
Start Zone Elevation
3231 m

Incident

Number Caught
1
Number Killed
1
Number Carried
1
Number Fully Buried
1

“The Snowy Torrents are like the Deep Sea: They seldom return their victims alive”

Narrative provided by The Snowy Torrents, courtesy of the American Avalanche Association. More information here: https://www.americanavalancheassociation.org/store

Logan, Spencer, Reardon, Blase, Walker, Emma, Long McKenzie (2022). The Snowy Torrents: Avalanche Accidents in the United States 1986-1996. American Avalanche Association

A skier was caught and carried in a small slide just off the ridge in the Wolverine Cirque. When the avalanche reached the lower portion of the cirque, a bigger slab broke out much deeper and wider than the original avalanche which initially caught the skier. Graupel pooling is suspected as a weak layer of the larger slab that broke out.