Utah’s backcountry skiing and avalanche forecasting community got terrible news Thursday night when one of our own passed away. Craig Patterson, an UDOT avalanche forecaster, was killed in an avalanche in the Kessler Slabs area of Cardiff Fork, Big Cottonwood Canyon. Patterson was working in the area that day, but didn’t return home. A...
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Avalanche airbag packs have become massively popular the past few seasons, as a couple of high profile survival stories made backcountry skiers stand up and take notice. Add in new technology and touring-friendly options, coupled with a reduction in price point, and viola, airbag packs are now everywhere. One of the most affordable packs...
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Every year, avalanche workshops around the country show videos to backcountry skiers of avalanches caught on tape. It’s great for education and as a scare-you-straight tactic while witnessing the immense power of snow sliding down a mountain. Usually the footage is captured on a GoPro that the victim is wearing. It’s not often that...
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The backcountry can be an ugly place. Grizzled, bearded men populate the canyons and mountainsides of the Wasatch, with fewer of the fair sex getting after it. Our mountains would be more charismatic and probably be safer with more women ripping skins and making turns. Females are far more less likely to die in...
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It’s time once again for the annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop. In previous years, the event has been held at The Depot in downtown Salt Lake City, but this year the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy will play host. In this, the 4th annual workshop, the best and brightest minds in the...
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Another avalanche fatality has occurred in Dutch Draw, located just off the 9990 lift in the backcountry outside the Canyons ski resort. A 24-year-old Salt Lake City man, Timothy Robert Baker, was killed after being buried in a slide at around 3 p.m. in the afternoon. According to KSL, Baker was snowboarding out of...
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An avalanche claimed the second fatality of the 2011/12 winter season when a snowboarder triggered a deep slab on the west side of Kessler Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Alecsander Barton, a 25-year-old man living in Salt Lake City, was backcountry touring on the morning of January 28 with two other people. The party...
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You’ll soon be able to add another avalanche safety device to your arsenal, as new and innovative gear is being invented. Along with the basics like shovel, probe and beacons, we’ve seen innovations like Black Diamond’s Avalung, then air bag packs, and now the ROTAUF MRK5 avalanche marking device. Looking at the ROTAUF MRK5,...
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It’s only mid-November, and Utah has already experienced its first avalanche fatality of the ski season. Jamie Pierre, a pro skier who was well known in the Snowbird community and the ski world, was killed after being swept away in a slide that took him over a band of cliffs. According to the Salt...
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Backcountry skiers, splitboarders, snowshoers, snowmobilers and anyone else who recreates in Utah’s winter backcountry absolutely has to be smart about avalanche conditions and safety. Education is key, but even if you’ve taken the requisite avalanche courses, continuing to learn is important. That’s why attending the annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop should be a...
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