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Up to 7 Missing After Avalanche in Utah
Rescue Workers Searching Utah's Provo Canyon for Up to Seven People Missing After Avalanche
The Associated Press
PROVO, Utah Dec. 26 — Rescue workers were searching for up to seven people reported missing Friday after an avalanche, authorities said.
The avalanche occurred Friday afternoon in the Aspen Grove area of Provo Canyon, about 25 miles northeast of Provo and north of Sundance ski resort.
Utah County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Dennis Harris said a snowshoer who witnessed the avalanche reported that several people did not appear to come out of it.
Harris said initial reports were that as many as seven people were missing. Rescue officials from Utah and Wasatch counties and workers from Sundance were searching for the people or trying to confirm their whereabouts, Harris said.
"Right now we've got all the (Utah County) canyons blocked off. It's an extreme avalanche danger," Harris said.
A winter storm dumped more than 2 feet in some mountain areas of northern Utah. The storm was decreasing late Friday afternoon in most areas, but had dropped 29 inches in 24 hours in the Sundance area, said National Weather Service forecaster Chris Brenchley.
Shitty. Be smart out there utards.
Snowboarders missing in Utah avalanche
PROVO, Utah, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Rescuers were searching for about six snowboarders missing after an avalanche swept down a cliff in Utah and possibly buried them, authorities said Friday.
Initial news reports from the area had seven missing and feared buried beneath the snow, but CNN reported Friday night that one of the snowboarders dug himself out.
The search went on for the others as night fell and temperatures began to fall from the high 20s, said Deputy Dennis Harris of the Utah County Sheriff's Office.
KVTX-TV of Salt Lake City reported the afternoon avalanche occurred in the Aspen Grove area of Provo Canyon east of Provo and north of Sundance ski resort.
A man crossing nearby on snowshoes called 911 around 5 p.m. (7 p.m. EST) and said he saw the avalanche.
"He said there were approximately seven kids that were up there snowboarding when the avalanche had gone down," Harris told CNN. "He couldn't see them any more."
The avalanche occurred during a day of heavy snowfall. Conditions were so treacherous that helicopters were not allowed to join the effort, Harris said.
Search Called Off in Utah Avalanche
Search Called Off for at Least 3 People After 2 Free Themselves From Avalanche in Utah
The Associated Press
PROVO, Utah Dec. 26 — A search for at least three people caught in a back country avalanche near Sundance ski resort Friday afternoon was called Friday night when authorities determined the avalanche danger was too extreme to continue.
Two Utah County men, ages 18 and 20, managed to free themselves after being buried up to their chests in the avalanche, Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said at an 8 p.m. news briefing at Sundance.
He offered little hope that the missing men were alive. "It's not probable at this time," he said.
The men, all snowboarders, were in a party of five. Their names were not released, and they declined to speak to reporters. One of the men was taken to Utah Valley Hospital with a leg injury, Tracy said.
Witnesses reported seeing at least two other parties of skiers, but that has not been confirmed, Tracy said.
Tracy said about 100 search and rescue, fire and emergency medical service personnel were searching as the weather worsened, with high winds loading the ridgetop cornices with more heavy snow that could have broken and started slides. When they heard small avalanches releasing above them, the rescuers radioed in to officers at the lodge.
After conferring with avalanche experts with the Utah Department of Transportation and Sundance resort, the search was called.
Tracy said that weather permitting, avalanche safety crews at dawn Saturday would bomb the cornices to release avalanches, then determine whether to resume the search.
There were three avalanches in succession, Tracy said. The first swept the five snowboarders a half mile down a narrow chute above Aspen Grove. Snow piled up from four to 14 feet deep at the bottom of the slide, which Tracy said was about three city blocks wide.
The second two slides were smaller, he said.
None of the snowboarders carried standard avalanche safety equipment such as transponders, shovels or probe poles, Tracy said.
A snowshoer reported the avalanche in the Aspen Grove area of the canyon about 25 miles northeast of Provo and north of Sundance ski resort Friday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. MST, said Utah County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Dennis Harris.
"When it went down he couldn't see any of them," Harris said.
Tracy said it appeared the avalanche broke away at the top of the chute, and that none of the skiers or snowboarders appeared to have set off the slide that caught them.
Officials closed the Provo Canyon road because of the avalanche danger. Sundance is about 25 miles northeast of Provo.
A winter storm hit northern Utah, dumping more than two feet in some mountain areas. The storm was decreasing late Friday afternoon in most areas, but had dropped 29 inches in 24 hours in the Sundance area, said National Weather Service forecaster Chris Brenchley.
Man, every time I hear of a fatal avalanche, my first reaction is always "I hope none of the Maggots were involved." Glad I'm not reading any obituaries here today. Like the cops at Hill Street say, "Let's be careful out there"
Check out this link and the report. It's worth the time to read the text next to each of the 7-8 images. Great detail on this report.
UAC Avie Report in Detail
It didn't give the sliding bed... I'd assume the graupel was where it slid on.
That's a good detailed report by UAC. Looks like an unanchored load on rock just let go from it's own weight, maybe triggered by the voices of those below in the terrain trap. One of the most potentially dangerous scenarios imaginable. But as last year's slide activity in Canada proved, it could happen anytime, anywhere.
QUESTION: what do u do when your skiing and the snow around you begans to slide.............. my answer ski like a bat out of hell. this in the end is probley get you burried so what are you suppost to do
As far as its know, sounds and voices do Not produce avalanches.Quote:
Originally posted by splat
. Looks like an unanchored load on rock just let go from it's own weight, maybe triggered by the voices of those below in the terrain trap.
Even some recorded supersonic booms have repeatedly failed to produce some.But remote triggering could be the cause in this case. I.a. You can easily trigger the upper slope in optilmal conditions.
wrong.Quote:
Originally posted by Spamhelmet
As far as its know, sounds and voices do Not produce avalanches.
how do you think a hand charge works?
oh right, they just "blow up" the snow :rolleyes:
Actually Ted, its not the noise of the hand charge that causes the avalanche. Its the shockwave that causes the snow to fail.
Cheers,
Halsted Morris
CAIC
Taken from Bruce Tremper's "Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain" p.13:
Popular Myths About Avalanches (And What Really Causes Avalanche Fatalities)
Myth
"Noise triggers avalanches"
Truth
Only in the movies. In 20 years as an avalanche professional I have never once seen an avalanche triggered by, say, a shout or even a sonic boom or a low-flying helicopter. I have heard of very rare incidents where low-flying helicopters triggered avalanches in extremely unstable conditions. However, most noise just does not exert enough force. It must be tremendously loud noise like an explosive going off at close range. In almost all avalanche fatalities, the avalanche is triggered by the weight of the victim, or someone in the victim's party."
Search Postponed for Utah Snowboarders
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By CHRISTIE L. HILL
Associated Press Writer
December 29, 2003, 9:12 AM CST
PROVO, Utah -- The search for the bodies of two snowboarders swept down a mountainside by an avalanche was postponed Monday because of bad weather.
High wind and more snow would make it difficult for search crews and volunteers to safely work on the 11,000-foot Elk's Peak area, said Utah County sheriff's Deputy Dennis Harris.
Five friends were caught by the avalanche Friday in a remote area with no avalanche control about 25 miles northeast of Provo and a mile north of the Sundance ski resort. Two survived even though they were swept a half mile down a narrow chute in Provo Canyon.
J.D. Settle, 20, said he was panicked when he was enveloped by the masses of snow flying down the mountainside.
"There's nothing but white," Settle said.
He dug himself out, but then had to be rescued after more snow buried him up to his neck. He was treated for a knee injury and hypothermia.
"I thought I was gone. That third one, I thought it was going to bury me because I had just my head poking out of the snow and that's it," Settle said as he joined the search teams Sunday looking for his friends.
The body of Mike Hebert, 19, of Orem, was found in four feet of snow on Sunday afternoon. He was identified by his driver's license and cell phone, Utah County Sheriff Jim Tracy said.
Adam Merz, 18, of Orem and Rod Newberry, 20, of Pleasant Grove were still missing.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
I wonder about that. A few years ago, on the hiway between Banff and Jasper, just north of the Columbia Icefields, I stopped my car beneath a steep loaded slope (there was a deep gully between the slope and the hiway) and upon slamming the car door, a slide let loose directly above. It was incredible to watch the whole thing from directly below, out of harms way. But I can't help but think the noise of the car door shutting triggered it.Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Shoelaces
Taken from Bruce Tremper's "Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain" p.13:
Popular Myths About Avalanches (And What Really Causes Avalanche Fatalities)
Myth
"Noise triggers avalanches"
Truth
Only in the movies. In 20 years as an avalanche professional I have never once seen an avalanche triggered by, say, a shout or even a sonic boom or a low-flying helicopter. I have heard of very rare incidents where low-flying helicopters triggered avalanches in extremely unstable conditions. However, most noise just does not exert enough force. It must be tremendously loud noise like an explosive going off at close range. In almost all avalanche fatalities, the avalanche is triggered by the weight of the victim, or someone in the victim's party."
Reverberations within the snow pack can be caused by a whole host of things and can have varying results. But no, Ted, that's not how a charge works.
right.Quote:
Originally posted by Hacksaw
Actually Ted, its not the noise of the hand charge that causes the avalanche. Its the shockwave that causes the snow to fail.
Cheers,
Halsted Morris
CAIC
its the percussive or concussive (always get those two mixed up) force or "shockwave" as you call it, which is rapidly moving air. we hear this force as noise. my point was the snow is not "blown apart", rather is affected by what is essentially a large noise bomb (refering to handcharges here). which is why you throw them next to rocks as the "sound" transmits more efficiently through rock than snow.
Right. I'm guessing it was probably your stinky capilene that triggered it.Quote:
Originally posted by splat
But I can't help but think the noise of the car door shutting triggered it.