Snowbasin Avi

[Miss Zula]

The dog searches over the past two days paid off, the victim was found this afternoon which will probably give a bit of rest to the family.

Its sad that it takes a fatality to bring the backcountry into perspective. This may have been a lower danger season than last year but the danger still exists out there. About two hours before I heard about the accident i was having an argument with a friend about wearing beacons - he didn't think they were necessary. Needless to say hearing about this shut him up (at least temporarily).

Here is the westwide avalanche report, it includes a local media report:
http://www.avalanche.org/av-reports/...3?OID=10549209
"The Salt Lake Tribune
OGDEN - Ryan Smedley's family said he was full of adventure, but he was not reckless. He had been snowboarding for about 20 years, and the canyon near Snowbasin where crews searched for his body Sunday was "his backyard."
The 34-year-old and a friend triggered an avalanche Saturday afternoon after snowboarding from the top of Snowbasin into Taylor's Canyon. The friend, John Pincombe, 32, escaped, but Smedley was buried...."

[Lance_K]

sucks. sorry to hear it.

[Red Baron]

I guess rescuers were trying to use Recco here, (as a locator, 24 hrs after the slide) the victim may have had a reflector in a boot, but I'm not sure - I heard that from a reporter who was at the scene. She was asking if that was as good or better than a beacon; I explained the differences to her.

She also said that the victim was buried in 10" of snow, so if that is correct we are not talking about a deep burial situation. No one has indicated the cause of death yet; trauma or lack of O2.

[criscam]

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.

thanks flyk. had a feeling that area was considered bc (didn't realize it was banana chute though). not really worth the risk of a half dozen turns just to access the cat track unless things are pretty stable.