Snowbasin Avi

[Red Baron]

Sounds like there's a slide somewhere in the sidecountry outside Snowbasin. Early reports say one person is missing, SAR is there, and AirMed just landed a chopper to help in a search.

[meatdrink9]

Sheesh. We were in the side country up there all day. Any info as to which portion of side country? We left after the lifts stopped turning and hadn't seen or heard anything. We did send some pretty large sluffs running in a few areas.

[Red Baron]

All we're hearing is SAR is using the tram to access it, but by tram, they could mean Gondola, so I'm not sure. I would assume it's somewhere near No-Name, isn't there one really big slide path just OB that way?

[meatdrink9]

There are actually quite a few places that could go down. One being the Banana chute off the tram. There's also been a bunch of people skiing west of Mt Ogden lately, but they seem to know what they're doing. They lao a bowl back there and then skin back up in bounds. Then there's a drainage between the Banana and Hell's Canyon that drops into Ogden Canyon that people car shuttle sometimes. Crinkle and cletus say they heard some kids talking about heading towards Ogden Canyon later in the day. Even Hell's had sluffs big enough to cover someone if they were to really screw things up.

[Red Baron]

MD, thanks for the info. As of now (7pm) it's still an active search for one missing person.

Edit: You may be on to something, the command post is at the top of 29th street in Ogden, near the bottom of Malans Basin...rather than up at the 'Basin.

[summit]

*prays the missing person is in the bar and for the safety of SAR*

[Red Baron]

Ok, new info. Sad news: it sounds like two snowboarders are involved; one got out safe and is OK, and triggered the SAR, the other is still missing and presumed to have died in the slide.

SAR's been called off for the night as of 8pm, it's cloudy & there's a storm rolling in. No other info is available yet about aspect, location...etc.

[Yossarian]

any news on where the slide was?

[Red Baron]

Few more details; missing person is a 34 year old man. The party of two went up on Snowbasin's lifts, went "over the top" (their words) and started to descend on the Ogden side. Apparently the slide started right at the top of their chosen descent route, as soon as the first boarder dropped in, his partner says the slide broke and ran several thousand feet to pretty much the valley floor. Partner heads down (no word on beacons or hasty search) and goes to a home, knocks on a door and calls 911 to trigger SAR response.

[AstroPax]

any news on where the slide was?

Based upon what I've read here so far, I'll take a wild-ass guess and say it was somewhere in Taylor Canyon.

-Astro

[Red Baron]

5 points for the man with the camera. The slide was in Taylor Canyon, apparently the two guys usually carry avi gear, but didn't have any today.

[Stoysluttie1]

twas only a matter of time somebody perished in thsoe regions...bummer

If it was taylors, I wonder if it broke as they skied the backside to the cat track???

[Red Baron]

stoy, I don't know the area well - from what the guy told SAR the slide broke way high, and ran "4,000 feet" - does that make sense?

[AstroPax]

stoy, I don't know the area well - from what the guy told SAR the slide broke way high, and ran "4,000 feet" - does that make sense?

FYI, it's approximately 3800' vert from the top of the tram down to the bottom of Taylor Canyon.

This might help:



-Astro

[zion zig zag]

If it was taylors, I wonder if it broke as they skied the backside to the cat track???

I guess a new wind slab could have formed but that was packed out/tracked out right after the storm (as always). That little part of the chute always makes me nervous.

I'm really surprised no one has been killed in hells this year, it's getting scary back there with people skiing on top of other groups.

[meatdrink9]

Taylor has been getting sessioned pretty hard this year. That was the area I mentioned had been being skied by the guys that "seemed" to know what they were doing but then skinning back into the resort. I bet these other guys were following there tracks. The wind had done some pretty crazy things from yesterday into today. All the upper stuff had been very effected. We had several in our crew get tossed on sluffs. It's so easy to forget that you're OB when it's that easy to get in and out of bounds. You've got to be sure to remember protocol when moving through that terrain. We saw the fingers go down in the most retarded fashion possible today. There were actually 3 people stacked on top of each other all in the chute at the same time. If one messed up all of them went down. Not too mention sluff.

[skifishbum]

RIP
Condolances to friends and family

[Hunterski]

I'm really surprised no one has been killed in hells this year, it's getting scary back there with people skiing on top of other groups.

Yeah I have pretty much avoided that area this year when conditions have been iffy. I have had some bad experiences over the last few years with people dropping in above me, especially in the north facing chutes off of the ridge. This whole incident is another example of the lack of respect side country gets from the general public. Personaly I would much rather be in the backcountry where the decisions of others are less likely to put me in danger.

[zion zig zag]

uac link:

http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/Acci...%203-12-06.htm

[Core Shot]

So sad.
Condolences to family and friends.


Here's the 3/11/06 forecast (took me a while to find it):
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/archiv...1_advisory.htm


Beware of familiarity and other heuristic traps.
Studying snow and avy knowledge is not enough when it gets overridden by human factors. This is something I still struggle with.

Here's the day after report:
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/archiv...2_advisory.htm
Still only "Moderate" danger
Keep that in mind next time someone (or you) says its "only" moderate hazard.

[SkiingBear]

...
Still only "Moderate" danger
Keep that in mind next time someone (or you) says its "only" moderate hazard.

Tom Kimbrough, former UAC director, summed it up well in my level II avi class last year.

"If you were going to a bar, and someone said you had a moderate chance of being shot when you walked in, would you still go in?"

Funny how much worse that word sounds in another context. Thinking about considerable in that context makes me shiver.

[Red Baron]

"If you were going to a bar, and someone said you had a moderate chance of being shot when you walked in, would you still go in?"

notice; this also applies to the Canyon Inn at the mouth of Big Cottonwood.

[SkiingBear]

notice; this also applies to the Canyon Inn at the mouth of Big Cottonwood.

Wait...shot? or attacked by a cougar?

[criscam]

Help me out here. Are we talking about the area/chute you can access just off the tram (walk 50 ft to the W/NW? once you get off)? only been up there a half dozen times or so and have used that to access the cat track to get to the top of no name. will think twice if this is the area in question.

[zion zig zag]

Help me out here. Are we talking about the area/chute you can access just off the tram (walk 50 ft to the W/NW? once you get off)? only been up there a half dozen times or so and have used that to access the cat track to get to the top of no name. will think twice if this is the area in question.

No, different chute, but that (the banana chute) has taken people for rides before, just no ones been killed there recently. You really should think twice everytime you ski that line, it's backcountry.

Here is where the avy was:

They crossed over the banana chute.