Avalanche
With five-feet of snow since the beginning of the week, Alta, Snowbird, and Little Cottonwood Canyon (Hwy 210) remained closed for the second consecutive day yesterday due to the serious threat of avalanches. There is no estimated time of opening as the resorts enter the third day of closure while UDOT and resort crews battle to make the area safe.
Today, two members of our Cottonwood Canyons team were staged in Little Cottonwood Canyon to assist with avalanche control. As they prepared to exit the UDOT utility truck for the snowcat, both vehicles were hit by a natural slide. We are grateful both team members are safe. pic.twitter.com/AGqx31WVsm
— John Gleason (@johnegleason) February 17, 2021
Buildings at the ski resorts remained under ‘maximum interlodge’ where no one in the Alta nor Snowbird areas is allowed to go outside due to the high risk of avalanches. The interlodge began at 11 pm on Monday. In February 2020, Alta was under a record 52-hour interlodge after dangerous conditions and numerous slides occurred in the area.
“The idea is you have to stay inside of a safe space, inside of a building and when there’s maximum we actually require people to get into the safest part of a building.”
– Harris Sondak, Mayor of the Town of Alta
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Interlodge is rare, usually only happening once or twice per season.
— Alta Ski Area (@AltaSkiArea) February 17, 2021
Last season it only happened once, but for 52-hours.
This is Sarah with your daily snow report for February 18, 2021. Over 4 feet of snow has fallen in the last 4 days, with our base and mountain operations teams working around the clock to dig out Snowbird. Ski patrol is still assessing the mountain and performing avalanche mitigation work to determine when and what can open on the mountain today. That, combined with no ETA from UDOT on the opening of SR-210, means we once again ask for patience as decisions are made. We will update this page as soon as we have updates.
Today’s forecast calls for partly sunny skies with a high near 20. Bundle up as morning temperatures will be as low as -4. Winds will be out of the west around 5 – 7 mph
The various difficulty ratings are relative to the Snowbird area and cannot be compared to other ski areas. Unmarked hazards may be present off the main runs. We kindly advise you to ski and ride with caution and stay in control. Wind and weather permitting, lifts will begin loading at 9 am. For hours of operation and daily terrain access, please see below.
Thank you for skiing and riding with us!
– Snowbird Mountain Ops, 2/18/21
Utah’s snowpack has been extremely dangerous this season having already taken 6 lives this season.
- UAC: Full Report from the Millcreek Canyon, UT Avalanche That Killed 4 Skiers
- UAC: Full Report From the Avalanche That Killed a Skier Just Outside Park City Mountain Resort, UT
The USA just saw its deadliest avalanche cycle history with 21 avalanche deaths in 19-days and it’s not over yet.
2/16 12:03PM The Town of Alta will remain on INTERLODGE until further notice. More avalanche mitigation expected.
— Alta Central (@AltaCentral) February 16, 2021
