SALT LAKE CITY—A 24-year-old snowboarder died Saturday after becoming trapped in an avalanche in a steep Utah backcountry area that the public was warned to avoid after potent snowstorms.
The death marks the ninth avalanche fatality in the West this season, and experts say the risk of additional slides could remain high all winter in parts of the region.
The latest victim was with two other men when the morning avalanche happened in Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Range near Salt Lake City, Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal said.
The other two—a snowboarder and skier—watched as the victim descended Kessler Peak into the canyon and triggered an avalanche, he said. With the help of avalanche beacons, the two found him dead in the snow less than an hour later.
The victim’s name and hometown were not immediately released.
“We’ve had a number of avalanches over the last couple of weeks,” Hoyal told The Associated Press. “Backcountry areas are extremely dangerous because of snow conditions.”
According to the Utah Avalanche Center’s preliminary report on the accident, the victim immediately triggered a 2- to 3-foot-deep “hard-slab” avalanche as he tried to descend a steep series of chutes on the mountain. He was carried about 2,400 feet down the slope and was completely buried near the bottom of the slide.
Bruce Tremper, the center’s director, said the avalanche occurred in the kind of terrain the public was warned to avoid after last week’s snowstorms. The center’s latest advisory noted avalanche conditions were dangerous and urged the public to steer clear of such steep slopes, he said.
“We put out the information and people are free to use it however they want to,” Tremper said. “Most people follow the advisory pretty closely.”
Experts say a weak base layer of snow due to a dry winter, packed with large grains of ice that are loosely connected, is plaguing parts of Utah, Colorado, Montana and California, and could keep avalanche risks high for the rest of the season.
Of the West’s nine avalanche deaths this season, four were in Colorado, three were along the Wyoming-Montana border, and two were in Utah, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. There were 25 deaths recorded last winter and 36 the season before.
Jamie Pierre, a world-record-holding professional skier, died in a Nov. 13 avalanche in the mountains near Salt Lake City while on a steep slope at a closed ski resort.
Avalanche deaths are much more common in the backcountry than at ski resorts.
Tremper said he didn’t know if he would be able to check out the Utah backcountry area where the latest fatality occurred.
“It sounds like a dangerous site,” he said. “I’m not sure I can get in there safely. I might not go into it.”
