Avalanche

Avalanche: Upper Weber Canyon

Torrey & KatzUintas
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Quick report

Slope Angle
40°

Avalanche

Slab Width
46 m
Weak Layer
Facets
Trigger Type
Natural
Vertical Fall
107 m
Avalanche Type
Soft Slab
Slab Thickness
20 cm
Start Zone Aspect
East
Avalanche Problem
Wind Slab
Start Zone Elevation
3109 m

We have documented a layer of near-surface facets within our terrain for the last 8 days. Beginning in the early morning hours of January 20th, our operating area experienced strong to extreme winds. The wind direction has been south, west, and north with even some east at times during the event. I suspect that this avalanche was triggered by a small piece of cornice that dropped onto the slope and failed on the buried layer of near surface facets. However we did not visit the slope to confirm. We did trigger a similar width and depth avalanche using a 2kg AB in another area of our terrain and were able to confirm failure on the NSF layer.