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SALT LAKE CITY — Forecasters were cautioning Monday about potential avalanche risks following a deadly weekend and a large new avalanche in Little Cottonwood Canyon where nobody was caught.
According to Drew Hardesty, with the Utah Avalanche Center, a skier "remotely" triggered the avalanche Monday afternoon along Cardiac Ridge on Mount Superior.
"It's very steep; it's very avalanche-prone terrain," Hardesty said during an interview with KSL-TV. "It was remotely triggered in that the skier was not on the avalanche — they triggered it from a distance."
The avalanche was roughly 2- to 3-feet deep and a couple hundred feet wide, Hardesty said.
Searchers from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and Wasatch Back Country Rescue responded to the area along with a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter but determined that nobody was caught or carried.
"It's been a very dangerous year," Hardesty said. "As of Saturday, that was our fourth avalanche fatality this year. We average just a little over two. It's been a very dangerous and unstable snowpack really since Thanksgiving."
As of Monday evening, avalanche danger in Salt Lake County was rated as "considerable."
Hardesty was urging backcountry skiers to stay on slopes below 30 degrees.
"This is not what I would say is a normal Utah snowpack," Hardesty said. "A lot of people are trying to thread the needle or outsmart the snowpack, but what I would say is terrain is king. And by that, what I mean is that it all comes down to gravity. Avalanches run on slopes steeper than about 30 degrees — between 30 and 45 degrees — and if people are staying on slopes less steep than 30 degrees with nothing steep overhead, then they're generally going to be enjoying that great powder with no avalanche danger."
He encouraged people to stay up with the latest Utah Avalanche Center forecasts with potentially significant mountain snow expected later in the week.
"That persistent weak layer needs to be matched by persistent patience," Hardesty said. "None of these things are going to heal overnight or turn on a dime. It's going to be days, perhaps even weeks, and depending on this storm this weekend that may produce another one or two, maybe even 3 feet with strong wind. Those layers are going to come roaring back to life, and we need to stay tuned to the current conditions and show extra caution with our steep terrain this year."
