Non Fly Fishing - Avalanche

[Sean OC]

This is not fly fishing related, but something of interest. Apparently there was an avalanche at the Canyons resort. Hope not too many people are hurt. Scary stuff. Here's a link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=1&u=/ap/20050114/ap_on_re_us/utah_avalanche

[Mason]

This is not fly fishing related, but something of interest. Apparently there was an avalanche at the Canyons resort. Hope not too many people are hurt. Scary stuff. Here's a link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=1&u=/ap/20050114/ap_on_re_us/utah_avalanche
Very scary. Last I heard there was one person confirmed trapped that they have 40 people looking for. They have a chopper waiting for when they find him but with this much time going by, I wonder if it is more a recovery at this point. We all need to be very careful out there this year.

[Stoney Clarke]

Here is the advise I got from the Alta Ski Patrol when they held their beginning of the season avalanche safety coarse for all canyon employees:

If you are ever in an avalanche you want to try and get your pack off if you are wearing one, drop your poles and try to twist of of your skis so they don't get caught up on trees, boulders etc... you then want to take your hands and put them behind your knees and tuck your head between your leg, then kiss your ass goodbye because you only have a 1 in 10 chance of surviving.

Moral, stay out of the back country unless you know your sh&t.

[Mason]

One man has definately died in this slide. They are not sure if there are more buried or not. The slide was 500 yards wide and 30 feet deep. Careful out there guys.

[Lonnie]

If you have a chance this weekend, you should drive up Provo canyon (on the way to FYAO). The two slides that came down this week are impressive to say the least.

L

[Crosby]

4 off of Mt. Logan- watched one from the steps at work. If I can watch it from there, it's pretty large, You use head. My CCing will be around Treasurton Res. this week and not in the mountains. .

[moabdds]

I met Lonnie fishing on Friday in Provo Canyon, and the big slide across the highway, all four lanes, was very impressive. What was a little scary was that if you looked up the mountain where the slide came from, it didn't particularly look like a place that would produce such an avalanche. After seeing that, I looked very carefully upslope at the areas I was intending to fish in the canyon. It would be the pits getting caught in an avalanche, triggered by an elk or just wind loading, while fishing. Avalanches don't just take out skiers/boarders/snomobilers. Knowing your stuff isn't always good protection. The winter of '91-92, Moab lost 5 of the 7 members of their avalanche rescue team in a slide. All very experienced back country people. The other two were fortunate enough that their heads weren't covered by the snow. BTW, the dangerous areas are slopes over 30 degrees.

moabdds