This is the accident and rescue summary from the Utah Avalanche Center following an avalanche near Park City Mountain on Saturday, Feb. 8, that was recorded at 200 feet wide and 600 feet long on a slope angle of 39 degrees:
The three skiers who triggered the slide had ascended about halfway up the hike above the 9990 lift before ducking a rope and traversing mid-slope.
The group, all equipped with rescue gear, stopped at the first red circle and observed a snowboarder riding below them. After waiting for about a minute, the first two skiers traversed to the second red circle, triggering an avalanche roughly 200 feet above them. The third skier remained on the edge of the slide and was not caught.
One skier, a female, was fully buried, reportedly in a vertical position. Her partner was partially buried but managed to self-extricate and begin a beacon search. The initial beacon reading was 2.0, with the lowest reading at 0.5. The buried skier had her arm above her head, which helped rescuers locate her hand quickly. A group of four individuals at the top of the lift, who had two-way radio communication with the victims, ducked a rope and skied down to assist with the dig-out.
The buried skier reported that the avalanche came in “two waves.” She believed the first wave originated from the skier’s left and attempted to point her skis downhill to avoid being buried. As she was coming to a stop, the second wave buried her. During this time, she extended her arm upward, which aided in her quick recovery.
The partially buried skier immediately initiated a beacon search. A group of four at the lift received radio communication and skied down to assist. Rescuers first located the buried skier’s hand, allowing them to clear snow around her head before continuing to dig. She was successfully extricated without reported injuries.
Annotated avalanche image – red circle represents party 1
At 1:15 PM, one burial was confirmed by witnesses and PCMR ski patrol. By 1:20 PM, Department of Public Safety was notified, followed by a request for an AirMed flyover at 1:45 PM. At 1:50 PM, PCMR ski patrol made contact with the party, who later skied out at 2:04 PM, stating they were the only group involved. A drone flyover at 2:25 PM confirmed no additional burials.
Terrain Summary
The High Dutch slope is along the Park City Ridgeline, outside of the Park City Mountain Resort boundary. In this case, it was accessed by skiers ducking the ropeline.
Dutch Draw slope has been the site of multiple fatal avalanches, including incidents in January 2021, December 2019, February 2012, and January 2005.
The party was traversing a slope with an estimated steepness of 30-35 degrees when the avalanche was remotely triggered from below. The slide released approximately 200 feet above in steeper terrain. Near the summit, the slope steepens to 38-40 degrees, where the avalanche crown was located.
Weather Conditions and History
A quick-moving winter storm moved into the region on the morning of February 7. Warm temperatures at the storm’s onset reached the upper 20s Fahrenheit and dropped throughout the day, reaching the single digits by the following morning. By the end of the day on February 7, the storm had dropped 10-12 inches of snow (1-1.5 inches of SWE) along the Park City Ridgeline. Partly cloudy skies greeted the morning of February 8.
Moderate to strong winds accompanied the storm, blowing 10-20 mph from the west and gusting to 45 mph. By the morning of February 8, the winds diminished slightly to 5-10 mph from the west-northwest, gusting up to 20 mph.
Snow Profile Comments
We dug a snowpit within the safe, representative flank. Here we found a snowpack structure that has been seen widespread across the Park City Ridgeline. The layers shown in our snowpit profile were similar to the ones in the crown of the avalanche. This slope is a repeater slope, that avalanched during the Dec 29th cycle, which is represented in this snowpit and across much of the park city ridgeline.
The crown depth ranged from 1 to 2 feet, with 3 to 5 inches of new soft snow sitting atop a 1F hard slab composed primarily of rounding facets. Beneath this slab, a layer of very small-grained facets rested on a fragile melt-freeze crust. The lower half of the snowpack consisted of December and November snow, made up of large-grained facets varying in hardness from 4F to 1F.
The avalanche appeared to have failed near the small melt-freeze crust, on top of, or in the upper part of the older December facets. It did not step down into the deeper faceted grains near the ground.
Comments
On the day of the accident, the avalanche danger was rated CONSIDERABLE on the slope where this avalanche occurred. Friday’s avalanche forecast is available HERE.
