Anonymous Comments Will Be Removed

Anonymous posts can be confusing and hard to follow with several users posting anonymously in the same thread. Please create a User Name/ID when adding to our comments section.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Deadly avalanche in Hell's Canyon / South Weber man dies and five others rescued in out-of-bounds terrain near Snowbasin

HUNTSVILLE -- A South Weber man died in a Sunday afternoon avalanche outside Snowbasin ski resort boundaries, officials say.

Later, a group needed helicopter assistance to get off the mountain because they had gone out of bounds and realized the snow was unstable.

Weber County Sheriff's Sgt. Brandon Toll, director of operations for search and rescue, said Todd Bell, 42, of South Weber, had planned to go down a different out-of-bounds run, No Name Canyon, with a friend.

But the two became separated and Bell went down Hell's Canyon alone.

Click here to read the rest of the story

Avalanche danger remains high according to the Utah Avalanche Center.

2 comments:

Kevin said...

Too bad people are so ignorant about avalanche danger. I'm an avid back country snowboarder and I was well aware of the extremely dangerous conditions this weekend so instead of risking my life out of bounds I rode some great powder inbounds at the Basin.

It doesn't take a very smart person to realize that avalanches become extremely likely when a big storm dumps 3-4 feet of snow on top of a hard icy/hoarfrosted layer. But to make matters worse, there were/are HUGE avalanche warnings in effect everywhere you look.

either way... RIP Todd Bell

Whistler said...

Kevin, your point is good. But, take a look around our society realize that there are people that will not wear seat belts, and will text and use cell phones while driving 75 MPH in a car. Studies have shown how dangerous these things are, but it does not seem to matter to some people.