Accident: Steep Hollow

*It should be recognized that the group was willing to share their story not only with the UAC but also with the news media in hopes that it would help spread the word about avalanche safety. Their effort is greatly appreciated.

A group of three riders, Jonny Wolford, Codie Nelson, and Jon Erickson were riding Timber sleds in the Steep Hollow area to the west of the Franklin Basin road. They were riding in the trees below a NW facing steep slope when the avalanche occurred. Codie probably triggered the hard slab avalanche (about 1pm) and tried to shoot across the moving to the other side but was knocked off his bike and pulled under the snow. He deployed his airbag but was carried approximately 60' and buried on the downhill side of a medium size conifer. His bike got caught up on a tree about 40' above him.

Jon was following Codie, saw the avalanche, and turned down the hill. He assumed Codie made it across safely. Jon reunited with Jonny and they quickly realized that Codie was not around. They rode up onto the deposition, saw his bike, and immediately realized he was under the snow. Jonny turned his beacon to receive/search and got a signal. He stayed in line with the bike and got his beacon numbers down to about 3. He probed, got a hit, and after digging a bit saw that it was a branch. He continued to probe until he got a solid strike and then he and Jon began digging feverishly. They reached Codie's head which was buried about 3' below the snow surface. Codie was unresponsive, blue, and foaming at the mouth. They believe it was about 15 minutes from the time of the avalanche until they reached his head. They continued to clear his body of snow while shaking him and trying to get him to respond. Codie described feeling completely dysfunctional - his arms and legs wouldn't work and he was hypothermic. It took about 30 minutes to get him free of the snow. Jonny described feeling utterly exhausted by the intense effort. Codie continued to slowly improve and despite having no sensation in his arms, hands and legs, he managed to ride out back to the trailhead. They got back to the trailhead around 3:30pm.

The three riders returned the next day with UAC staff, Toby and Paige, to debrief about what had happened. Codie still had no sensation in his fingers and had slight ankle pain but otherwise had no major injuries. Note: His airbag deployed but since he was only carried a short distance, it did not have time to "float" him to the surface.

Steep Canyon is a wide box-like canyon of rolling meadows surrounded by steep canyon walls. The avalanche occurred on a steep (40 degree) NW facing slope around 8900'. The riders were in the transition zone (about 30-35 degrees) riding across the hill below the slope when the avalanche occurred. The avalanche did not run far and piled deeply on the slope and around trees. The upper part of the avalanche was flanked on one side by rocks/cliffs where a large amount of snow had been recently wind deposited.

The last significant snowstorm occurred on Tuesday 1/5/21. The mountains received around 10-12"of snow with 1" H20. There were strong winds as well that day creating areas of wind drifted snow. Another 1-2" of snow fell on 1/7/21. The day of the accident skies were sunny and winds were calm. Faceted snow has been the predominant weak layer since early December. There has been little snowfall in general. Slabs are slowly starting to form. It appears this particular slope was heavily wind loaded as the slab was much thicker than any observed prior.

These riders were incredibly lucky to have the outcome they did. Two of the three carried avalanche rescue gear with one of those two getting buried. They thought they were staying safe in the trees as the likelihood of remote triggered slides was unknown to them. There were several reports of remote triggered avalanches in the Logan zone on the same day. After visiting the accident site, we observed two other large PWL avalanches in Steep Hollow around the same elevation but facing E.

The Logan Herald Journal published this article on 1-11-2021, HERE

KSL News (TV) published this article on 1-13-2021, HERE