Bogley

[kris]

Went up to Lake Blanche today. It was another awesome day up the canyons. I had about 6" of fresh snow covering the old tracks, until we made it to the steep section. Once there, it was pretty much untracked, with a lot of breaking trail. Weather was overcast, with some lite flurries until we were about 300 yards out. Then the wind picked up about 15-20mph, and the temps dropped to about 6 degrees. I had to break out the goggles to see where I was going. We're looking at maybe trying to camp up there next weekend. All in all, a great hike to do.

[TreeHugger]

Love this picture:

[jumar]

Looks great!

[accadacca]

Nice report with great photos. :five:

[live2ride]

Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there?

[Mtnman1830]

Great TR!

[DiscGo]

That picture of snow prints through 2 feet of powder looks like a lot of work.

I was thinking about going up there yesterday, and I may go camping here or Southern Utah this weekend. Your pictures have really inspired me. Thanks.

[kris]

live2ride wrote: Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there?


Slim to none really. The trail is along the bottom of the canyon pretty much the whole way. When it does pull up out of the bottom, it really doesnt cross any danger areas.

[kris]

DiscGo wrote: That picture of snow prints through 2 feet of powder looks like a lot of work.

I was thinking about going up there yesterday, and I may go camping here or Southern Utah this weekend. Your pictures have really inspired me. Thanks.


Oh yeah, I love breaking trail on fresh snow. Such a great workout, and you get such a great high out of it.

I am waiting for my new coat system from Marmot to show up. As soon as it does, we are looking at either camping up here, or possibly up Lone Peak.

[Brian in SLC]

kris wrote: live2ride wrote: Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there? Slim to none really. The trail is along the bottom of the canyon pretty much the whole way. When it does pull up out of the bottom, it really doesnt cross any danger areas.

Ugh.

There's plenty of avalanche terrain up there, especially above the trail to Lake Blanche. A similar trail is Mineral Fork. See below on the type of avalanche folks should be looking for and avoiding when hiking these upper elevation backcountry trails in the central Wasatch.

-Brian in SLC

From:

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/Accidents/Accidents,04-05/Mineral%20Fork%2012-11-04.htm

Accident Report Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Mineral Fork - Two Snowshoers killed

Provisional report by Bruce Tremper - last updated 12-25-2004

Location:

Mineral Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon just east of Salt Lake City, Utah

Accident Summary:

Two snowshoers were reported as overdue when they failed to return from a walk up Mineral Fork on Saturday, December 11th. Victim are Bruce Quint, 59, and Melvin Dennis, 37, both from Salt Lake City.

Rescue Summary:

Saturday night, two skiers from Salt Lake Country Search and Rescue followed snowshoe tracks to the base of a large headwall at the upper end of Mineral Fork where the tracks disappear under fresh avalanche debris and did not appear again on the other side. The two snowshoers were the first people to travel up Mineral Fork after the large storm, which ended two days earlier. Searchers could find no beacon signals in the debris, nor visual clues. Neither of the victims wore beacons. In consultation with several avalanche experts, including one who flew over the area in a helicopter that night, they decided that conditions were too dangerous to bring in a larger team of searchers that night.

On Sunday morning personnel from Wasatch Powderbird Guides controlled the area with explosives, which triggered widespread avalanches in remainder of the canyon as well as hang fire above the accident site. They flew teams of rescuers to the site including Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, a volunteer group of ski area personnel operating under the Salt Lake County Sheriff. The helicopter was from Utah Highway Patrol. They searched the area using trained avalanche rescue dogs and probed areas where the dogs indicated interest. At 11:30, they found Melvin Dennis buried about four feet deep and more-or-less in line with the tracks which entered the debris. They found the second victim Bruce Quint, on Monday, December 13, 2004 around 10:00 am about 25 yards uphill from the first victim and buried over eight feet deep. Both victims appeared to have been simply pushed over by the debris and buried without being tumbled and were probably buried fairly near their initial positions.

Avalanche Data:

The avalanche was a very large, hard-slab avalanche, which fractured out the lower third of the northeast-facing slope hanging above them. As near as we can tell, it fractured about 2-3 feet deep, 400 feet wide and descended 800 vertical feet. The dimensions of the original avalanche was hard to determine precicely because the area was controlled by helicopter-delivered explosives before rescuers could safely go into the area. Subsequent control avalanched all the remaining snow above the fracture line as well as much most of the adjacent avalanche paths. The debris was about 300 feet wide and averaged 6 feet deep, but is much deeper in places. The elevation of the upper fracture was around 9,000’ and the toe of the debris was 8,200’. The slab was composed of dense, new snow and wind-blown snow mostly deposited December 8-9. The weak layer was an extremely weak layer of near-surface faceted snow and surface hoar formed during three weeks of clear weather in November and early December. My examination of the snowpack in the area showed that the snow was still quite unstable and I could barely isolate a column in several different snow pit tests (CTE 2, Q1) which means compression test easy with a score of 2 out of 30 with a clean, easy shear. There is no way to know whether the snowshoers triggered the avalanche, but conditions were certainly conducive as they were on gentle a gentle slope directly at the base of the large, steep slope above, which avalanched. See Photos. See Snow Profile Graphic. See Map.

Weather History:

Northern Utah experienced a huge snow storm with very strong winds on December 8th and 9th with snow lingering into the morning of the 10th. This overloaded the buried weak layers and combined with a rapid temperature rise produced widespread avalanche activity during the storm. An avalanche warning was in effect for the December 8-10th but was allowed to expire at midnight before the accident. The danger rating was rated as HIGH on the day before the accident and was downgraded to CONSIDERABLE to HIGH on the day of the accident. Our forecast for the day included a very strongly worded warning for backcountry travelers to stay off of and out from underneath any slope steeper than about 30 degrees.

[live2ride]

kris wrote: live2ride wrote: Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there?


Slim to none really. The trail is along the bottom of the canyon pretty much the whole way. When it does pull up out of the bottom, it really doesnt cross any danger areas.

Isn't the bottom of the canyon the worst place if there is an Avalance, meaning that you are surrounded by slopes which have at least a 30 degree slope on them?

[Brian in SLC]

live2ride wrote: Isn't the bottom of the canyon the worst place if there is an Avalance, meaning that you are surrounded by slopes which have at least a 30 degree slope on them?

They don't call them "terrain traps" for nothin'.

-Brian in SLC

[kris]

live2ride wrote: kris wrote: live2ride wrote: Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there?


Slim to none really. The trail is along the bottom of the canyon pretty much the whole way. When it does pull up out of the bottom, it really doesnt cross any danger areas.

Isn't the bottom of the canyon the worst place if there is an Avalance, meaning that you are surrounded by slopes which have at least a 30 degree slope on them?


So, is this area here a high danger area?


Myself, and the other guy I went with figure no. After looking at the avalanche forecast for the area, they relative flatness through the basin, and the steepness on the steep parts, we still figured a pretty low danger. The side of the creek the trail follows is the west aspect, which correct me if I am wrong, typically offers the least amount of potential. Also, given the amount of large conifers, aspen stands, and other vegetation pretty much the whole way up, again, we felt like it was pretty minimal.

Now, if you are looking to face the danger, the other side of the creek, there were obviously previous signs of avalanches in years past. But again, all this is on the other side, roughly 200 yards distance down slope, and up the other side.

So yeah, if you have your head up your ass, and take the routes that are blatantly asking for trouble, then yeah the danger is high.

So, please post all the links you have, because I do enjoy learning as much as possible.

Looking at prior avalanches up mineral fork, there seems to be avalanche chutes that get used every year, and certain areas that are barren, and look like they make conditions ripe.

So you are all of course right. There is a danger of avalanches anywhere you go. There is a danger of sliding off the road driving up there, or having someone careen out of control and run you over.

That's not going to prevent me from doing what I enjoy. Using the tools I had at hand, the way conditions were, and the area we were in, we felt totally comfortable.

[devNull]

kris wrote: live2ride wrote: kris wrote: live2ride wrote: Pics look great! What kind of avalance danger is up there?


Slim to none really. The trail is along the bottom of the canyon pretty much the whole way. When it does pull up out of the bottom, it really doesnt cross any danger areas.

Isn't the bottom of the canyon the worst place if there is an Avalance, meaning that you are surrounded by slopes which have at least a 30 degree slope on them?


So, is this area here a high danger area?


Myself, and the other guy I went with figure no. After looking at the avalanche forecast for the area, they relative flatness through the basin, and the steepness on the steep parts, we still figured a pretty low danger. The side of the creek the trail follows is the west aspect, which correct me if I am wrong, typically offers the least amount of potential. Also, given the amount of large conifers, aspen stands, and other vegetation pretty much the whole way up, again, we felt like it was pretty minimal.

Now, if you are looking to face the danger, the other side of the creek, there were obviously previous signs of avalanches in years past. But again, all this is on the other side, roughly 200 yards distance down slope, and up the other side.

So yeah, if you have your head up your ass, and take the routes that are blatantly asking for trouble, then yeah the danger is high.

So, please post all the links you have, because I do enjoy learning as much as possible.

Looking at prior avalanches up mineral fork, there seems to be avalanche chutes that get used every year, and certain areas that are barren, and look like they make conditions ripe.

So you are all of course right. There is a danger of avalanches anywhere you go. There is a danger of sliding off the road driving up there, or having someone careen out of control and run you over.

That's not going to prevent me from doing what I enjoy. Using the tools I had at hand, the way conditions were, and the area we were in, we felt totally comfortable.

During a portion of the lower sections you are hiking in the runout zone for the slopes across the creek. If you remotely trigger one of the slopes your chances of getting out of the way are pretty slim.

Also, just before you hit the lake you cross another avalanche path. I have hiked across debris piles in that section more than once.

Wasatch Touring sells some pretty useful trail maps that help give you a better idea of the known avalanche paths. That said if you travel in avalanche terrain you really ought to take a course or two.