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Avalanche: Main Porter

Observer Name
Sven
Observation Date
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Avalanche Date
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Region
Salt Lake » Mill Creek Canyon » Porter Fork » Main Porter
Location Name or Route
Main Porter
Elevation
9,100'
Aspect
Northeast
Trigger
Skier
Depth
12"
Width
60'
Caught
1
Carried
1
Comments
Triggered a small soft slab avalanche on the uphill walking under a cliffband and a foot deep while still hiking, it was not cohesive, light snow but still carried me, propagated about 15-20 feet above me, 60 feet wide, didn't have a ton of power behind it, I went maybe 20 down the slope with snow piling up to my knees and stopped from the tree. Was surprised but in hindsight being in the rocky, shallow terrain was not a great plan of attack. The slide probably ran ~100 or so feet. Sorry for bad pics I got a little spooked. The slide was on the new snow old snow interface and the bed surface was quite firm, It failed on some rotten facets near the rocks. This happened on our 3rd lap in the drainage, otherwise, it was sluffy but manageable, only avalanche I saw. Other than that the skiing was great. Good to have some snow back in the Wasatch! I'm going to be a bit more cautious as the South winds are picking up (SSW 18mph right now (6:00pm on Reynolds), more snow tonight, this same layer with a bigger load is surely going to move some snow.
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