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- Two avalanches occurred Saturday in Summit County's Dutch Draw and Salt Lake County's Big Cottonwood Canyon.
- One person died, and another was injured in Big Cottonwood Canyon; three were rescued in Dutch Draw.
- Avalanche risk is "considerable" after a storm increased snow levels, causing multiple incidents.
PARK CITY — Two avalanches, one fatal, were reported Saturday afternoon in Summit County's Dutch Draw area and Big Cottonwood Canyon.
One person was killed in a separate avalanche and another was rescued in the east bowl of the Silver Fork area of Big Cottonwood Canyon, near Alta Ski Area.
The notification came in shortly after 12:45 p.m., Summit County sheriff's deputy Arlan Bennett said. A soft slab avalanche was triggered at about 10,000 feet elevation in the area, according to a preliminary report by the Utah Avalanche Center.
It's unclear yet if it was a natural or human-triggered slide, but the 150-foot wide avalanche traveled 700 feet, catching and carrying two people along the way. One was killed in the 2-foot-deep avalanche while the other was able to escape with "significant leg injuries," the report added. He was flown off the mountain in a medical helicopter.
Bennett said both skiers were men in their 50s. Two bystanders skiing in the area helped locate the man who died, adding that rescue efforts were complicated by another avalanche above the main rescue area.
Teams returned to the area on Sunday as part of recovery efforts, Utah Avalanche Center officials posted on social media.
The skiers' identities were not immediately released. Salt Lake County search and rescue team, Utah Department of Public Safety, and Wasatch Backcountry Rescue all assisted.
Less than a half-hour later, the Summit County Sheriff's Office search and rescue team responded to reports of an avalanche in the Dutch Draw area off of Silver Peak. Summit County sheriff's spokesperson Skyler Talbot said three skiers were directly involved — one was buried, and the other two were able to ski out of the slide.
"The two unburied skiers quickly dug out the third individual. All three skiers were safely escorted off the mountain and did not require on-site medical treatment," the sheriff's office said.
Utah Avalanche Center officials determined that the slide was caused by human activity at 9,700 feet elevation in the area, while Talbot estimates it was about 120 feet wide.
He said the rescue team staged resources in the Canyons Village area and received assistance from Park City ski patrollers. A Department of Public Safety helicopter scanned the area to confirm there were no other skiers affected.
Both avalanches occurred after a "quick-moving" storm ultimately overperformed initial forecasts. One National Weather Service site in Alta received 17 inches of new snow between Friday and Saturday, while Alta Ski Area and Snowbird Resort reported receiving slightly higher totals. Several other resorts in the area received a foot of snow or more.
The new snow elevated avalanche risk to "considerable" across most of the Wasatch Mountains, Utah Avalanche Center officials warned. The agency recorded at least 15 new avalanches between Friday and Saturday. It noted there was a close call near Logan that buried a skier, while another in the Lake Mary area of Big Cottonwood among those.
Greg Gagne, a Utah Avalanche Center forecaster, said a "persistent weak layer" across the range means that human-triggered avalanches are "likely."
"Friday's storm snow fell on top of a very weak snow surface in some areas, and it's one of these avalanche dangers that persists for some time," he said on Sunday. "I expected we'll be in considerable danger for probably another day or two."
Saturday's fatality marked the fourth avalanche death in the state this season. A solo splitboarder, 54-year-old Reed Heil, was killed in the Silver Fork Drainage of Big Cottonwood Canyon on New Year's Eve, buried 20 feet deep in an avalanche.
Contributing: Carter Williams, Becky Bruce
