[PHOTOS] Solo Snowboarder Killed in Large Cottonwood Canyon, UT, Avalanche Was Buried Below 20-Ft of Snow

A 54-year-old man died in an avalanche on Tuesday, December 31, the second avalanche-related fatality in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains in three days. The incident occurred within the Davenport Hill space north of the ridge separating Large and Little Cottonwood Canyon, east of Salt Lake Metropolis.

The crown was two ft deep, 300 ft large, and ran for 400 vertical ft. The person was discovered beneath 20 ft of snow.

“Someday on the morning of December 31, 2024 a solo splitboarder dropped into north going through Davenport Hill, within the Silver Fork Drainage of Large Cottonwood Canyon. He triggered an avalanche which subsequently caught, buried, and killed him. One other celebration lapping the terrain to the south in Little Cottonwood Canyon seen a single observe into contemporary avalanche particles on one in every of their laps and known as Alta Central.

Search and rescue groups from AirMed, DPS, Utah Division of Transportation, Salt Lake Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Alta Ski Space, and Utah Avalanche Middle responded, discovered the person with an avalanche transceiver and labored collectively to excavate the person. He was buried roughly 20 ft (6 meters) from the floor.

We are going to gather data and replace a full accident report quickly.

Our condolences exit to to the sufferer’s household and associates, in addition to these affected by this tragedy.”

– Utah Avalanche Middle preliminary report

 

The Utah Avalanche Middle  (UAC) reported that the sufferer, whose id stays undisclosed, was touring alone on a splitboard within the Silver Fork space when the avalanche struck. The precise timing of the occasion is unsure, but it surely’s believed to have occurred Tuesday morning.

A skier from one other celebration seen a single observe main right into a latest avalanche particles subject and alerted Alta Central. This triggered a multi-agency rescue group response, together with the Division of Public Security, AirMed, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue, Utah Division of Transportation, and the UAC.

Utilizing avalanche transceivers, the rescue group positioned and recovered the sufferer’s physique. Deputy Arlan Bennett of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Workplace confirmed the fatality however couldn’t present particulars on the sufferer’s actions main as much as the avalanche.

Simply three days prior, on Saturday, an overdue hiker from Canada was killed by an avalanche in close by Millcreek Canyon. His physique was recovered on Tuesday, the identical day because the Little Cottonwood Canyon incident.

Since Friday, the Wasatch Mountain backcountry, together with the Cottonwood Canyons, has been underneath a excessive avalanche warning. The UAC attributes the elevated danger to a harmful mixture of heavy, water-laden new snow on a weak, pre-existing snow layer. An Alta monitoring website has recorded over three ft of contemporary snow since Christmas Day, mirroring circumstances all through the Cottonwood canyons. Since December twenty seventh, 58 backcountry avalanches have been reported to the Utah Avalanche Middle from the Salt Lake, Provo, and Ogden mountains. Of those, 41 occurred within the Salt Lake space alone. Many had been triggered remotely or from a distance, failing a number of ft deep and over a thousand ft large. One instance is a skier remotely triggering a 2-foot-deep, 300-foot-wide smooth slab avalanche on a persistent weak layer whereas skinning 150-200 ft away on low-angle terrain (20-25°) in Mill D North.

Avalanche consultants stress that human-triggered and pure avalanches are seemingly throughout the Wasatch Mountains underneath these circumstances. They strongly advise backcountry fans to keep away from slopes steeper than 30 levels and to train excessive warning in avalanche-prone terrain.

The fatality is the fourth avalanche-related loss of life of the 2024-25 season in North America.

This text was edited at 04:30 a.m. PST on Thursday, January 2, 2025, so as to add additional information and photographs from the UAC.