We are very sad to report that four skiers were killed in an avalanche in the backcountry in Mill Creek Canyon above Salt Lake City on Saturday.
Preliminary Accident ReportThe UAC in Logan is offering a Youth BC 101 avalanche class for youth aged 16-20 on Feb 21. For more info and to register, click
HERE*DANGEROUS BACKCOUNTRY AVALANCHE CONDITIONS EXIST*
Light snow is falling at Beaver Mountain this morning, and there is a trace of new snow. It's 26°F and there is 56 inches of total snow at the 8400' Tony Grove Snotel, with 72% of normal SWE. Strong westerly winds drifted tremendous quantities of the fresh snow into avalanche starting zones. West winds are blowing around 20 mph at the 9700' CSI Logan Peak weather station this morning, and drifting will continue today at upper elevations. With widespread layers of preexisting very weak snow, the recent significant increase in load on the fragile snowpack on drifted slopes has created dangerous avalanche conditions in the backcountry.
We went up to Cornice Ridge on 2-8-2021 to check out a large natural hard slab avalanche that occurred overnight Saturday night or early Saturday morning. Wind drifted snow overloaded weak sugary or faceted snow near the ground and tipped the scales before any people could even get out on or under the slope.
Snow is falling in the Bear River Range this morning, and 2 to 4 inches of accumulation is possible today on upper elevation slopes. It will be cloudy today with high temperatures at 8500' around 27°F, continuing 20 mph west winds, and wind chill values as low as -2°F. A cooler and more unsettled weather pattern will develop later in the week, with another round of heavy snow looking likely for Thursday night and Friday.
Yesterday (2-8-2021), a rider triggered a 4' deep hard slab avalanche in Chubby Hollow, within sight of Hwy 89 and the Bear Lake Overlook. The avalanche did not run very far and did not catch anyone, but illustrates the existing CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger that can be found even in unexpected or unusual places.
Saturday, backcountry skiers remote triggered a 2' deep and 200' wide avalanche on a fairly low angled slope on the shoulder of Swan Peak (or Bridger Peak) above Bear Lake.
With a bit of clearing, large natural avalanches, likely from during the height of Friday's storm, were observed on Chicken Hill in Bunch Grass, the east face of Wilderness Peak in the Gibson Lakes Area in Franklin Basin, a few miles north of the Idaho State Line, in Steep Hollow, just south of Doubletop Mountain or "Gunsight", off the south ridge of Mt. Magog, and near Mt. Elmer in the Mt. Naomi Wilderness.
A fresher, very large natural avalanche, perhaps from Saturday night or early Sunday morning, was observed Sunday (2-7-2021) on Cornice Ridge.
A huge fresh natural avalanche was observed yesterday (2-7-2021) on Cornice Ridge.
