Riders triggered over a dozen sizable avalanches in the Tony Grove Area midweek February 4 and 5, and once again a couple people were probably pretty dang lucky in the Logan Zone. Although impressive looking slides, two feetdeep and in some cases, wider than a football field, these were soft, slow-running, and as it turns out, rather user-friendly avalanches.
Practicing avalanche rescue in a nice sled triggered avalanche in the Tony Grove Area on 2-7-2015
Skilled riders might've outrun these avalanches, and no one got hurt this time, butfuture avalanches on the same slopes couldbe much faster, run farther, and might bewayless hospitable to their triggers. I know some of us regularly go faster than snow can,but we shouldn't get overconfident, as next time avalanches might be a bit less friendly and perhaps significantly more serious even in the same areas.
I garage produced a fewshort videos describing the snow and weather leading up to the and looking at a couple of the sled triggered avalanches.
Video 1- A sled triggered avalanche on the south ridge of Mt. Magog on 2/5/15:
Video 2- I looked at the snow-pack in the Tony Grove Area on February 2 before the wet storm, and find mostly stable snow, except forright near the surface.
Video 3-Sled Triggered Slides at the Grove
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*****Honey Badger vs Avalanche".......HERE
It seems obvious to me, that if you trigger an avalanche, you are likely to trigger another one on a similar slope. I guess not everybody understands this, or riding the treacherous white wave is becominganother facet in the backcountry sport. Every time we came around a corner on Friday in the Tony Grove Areawe'd see another bigger triggered avalanche!
A user-friendly avalanche in Christmas Tree Bowl occurred on February 5
An article published by the Logan Herald Journal on the Topic:
Posted:Thursday, February 26, 2015 11:45 pm
By Lance Frazier|0comments
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Posted on Feb 26, 2015
Are more backcountry riders triggering avalanches for the thrill of riding the wave?
Local avalanche forecaster Toby Weed says he has noticed several avalanches this winter that appear to have been started so that snowmobilers could ride them out, something he describes as dangerous but not illegal.
“As far as snowmobilers intentionally triggering avalanches, it seems like it may be becoming a more common practice,” Weed said. “The more high-end riders are doing it.”
In one instance, Weed found signs earlier this month that a series avalanches had been triggered in one area near Tony Grove. His read on the situation was that a group of snowmobilers kept riding into slide zones, and kept starting avalanches, perhaps intentionally.
“It seemed obvious to me, if you trigger an avalanche, you’re likely to trigger another on a similar slope,” Weed said. “They may be triggering them for the thrill of riding them, and in some cases, riders are videoing themselves escaping avalanches. Maybe that’s just part of the sport now.”
Weed said the practice is “not all that uncommon or controversial,” but people need to check the slide path before they intentionally trigger an avalanche to make sure other users are not below. His other concern is that the avalanches this year have been relatively mellow, and users who become accustomed to these conditions may be in for an unpleasant surprise in another avalanche situation. Weed wrote about “user friendly” avalanches on his blog,http://utahavalanchecenter.org/blog-riding-white-wave-user-friendly-avalanches.
“The avalanches are not as deep or fast-moving or deadly as avalanches usually are in the Tony Grove area,” he said, attributing that to warmer-than-normal temperatures and below-average snowfall in Northern Utah this winter.
This does not mean that recreating in the backcountry is without risk this winter; Weed noted that a snowmobiler died on Saturday in Franklin County. That incident did not involve an avalanche, but a rider losing control after going over a ridge and down a steep drop-off.
Intentionally triggering avalanches is common practice for backcountry travelers, Weed said, especially for backcountry guides, ski area workers and highway avalanche control programs. Those avalanches, however, are triggered to avoid snow building up to larger slides, not to play in.
“I hesitate to intentionally trigger an avalanche, and urge people not to do it, because you’re not always sure how powerful the avalanche will be and exactly what (or who) is below you,” Weed said. “But it’s the way things are going, with high-end riders and high-end machines. Skiers and snowboarders are doing it too occasionally.”
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