Heavy snows in West boost avalanche dangers

SALT LAKE CITY – Storms that blanketed some high peaks in the West with more than 7 feet of snow since Christmas are keeping avalanche control crews busy and triggering warnings across the region for anyone who’s considering backcountry travel.

While heavy snow and deadly avalanches aren’t unusual here, the recent rapid increase in snow depths contributed to a spike in slides, avalanche experts said Wednesday.

A Utah snowshoer is presumed dead after he was lost in an avalanche on Saturday; an avalanche killed two snowmobilers in Colorado on New Year’s Day, and a backcountry skier in Alaska was killed in an avalanche Tuesday. In Wyoming, a man died in an avalanche northeast of Jackson Hole on Dec. 27. A snowboarder in Colorado was also killed in an avalanche in early November.

It’s been a wild week for avalanche safety experts who try to warn skiers, snowboarders, snowshoers and snowmobilers away from fresh snow in the backcountry.

“Our concern is that as the winter progresses we’ll come to a point where we just get that last inch of snowfall and windblown snow, onto primarily north- and northeast-facing slopes, that will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Scott Toepfer, a forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

In Wyoming, officials cautioned that a return to warmer, sunnier weather forecast for today and Friday brings considerable avalanche risks.

“The potential for very large dangerous slabs to be human-triggered and run long distances persist,” read the avalanche report for today for the Bridger-Teton National Forest. “Sunshine and warm temperatures will increase the sensitivity of these slabs to human triggers as the day progresses and could trigger sizable soft slabs, loose snow sluffs and sunballs and pinwheels on steep sunlit aspects.”

Alaska avalanche officials said Tuesday’s fatality shows that serious risks remain.

“Yesterday’s large avalanche sums up the stability at high alpine elevations,” wrote Carl Skustad, a forecaster for the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center.

Advisories were also issued for the Montana mountains.

“The southern mountains could sure use a rest from all the snowfall recently,” wrote Doug Chabot, a forecaster with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. More than 3 feet of snow fell there since last Thursday, causing widespread avalanches.

Recent avalanche reports prompted a jump in visits to avalanche awareness Web sites and drew increased interest in a weeklong avalanche awareness gathering scheduled to begin Jan. 30 at Utah’s Snowbird ski resort. The event is expected to draw avalanche experts and winter backcountry enthusiasts from across the West.

Also in Utah, the Uinta National Forest closed an avalanche-prone area to the public Tuesday. The area, near Provo Canyon, is where Marshall Higgins, 33, of Salt Lake City, disappeared in an avalanche while snowshoeing with a friend high up in the mountains. His friend was able to ride out the avalanche and call for help.

“Most people have been very responsive,” said Loyal Clark, spokeswoman for the Uinta National Forest. “But unfortunately, it takes a tragedy like this to make people aware of the really severe danger.”

The two snowmobilers killed in Colorado were in a wilderness area where motorized vehicles are prohibited, the U.S. Forest Service said.

Slides continued to cover the area where Higgins went missing, and officials say it may not be safe enough to search there again until spring.

“The higher likelihood is that it will be months before we could do anything,” said Sgt. Spencer Cannon, spokesman for the Utah County sheriff’s office.

Last season saw eight avalanche deaths in Utah, the highest number since record-keeping began in 1951. Colorado avalanches killed five, and four people were killed in Idaho slides. Nationally, 28 died last season.

Bruce Tremper, of the Utah Avalanche Center, said a break in the weather will likely slow avalanche activity for the next few days. But a storm is forecast to bring more snow to the higher peaks this weekend.

The weight and depth of the recent snows, which were heavier and wetter than the West’s famous powder, created ideal avalanche conditions.