Avalanche
What do you get when five-and-a-half feet of snow falls in three days on top of an already 800+ inch season?
Avalanches.
🚧#RoadClosureUpdate🚧@UtahDOT road operations slide debris clearing resumes at the #SR210 Maybird (MP 7.5) slide (and above). @UDOTavy avalanche mitigation is ongoing this morning.
‼️NO ETO for opening. @UDOTRegionTwo @UtahDOT @AltaCentral @AltaAlerts @SnowbirdAlerts @UPDSL pic.twitter.com/s4Ri6Y4Sfj
— UDOT Cottonwood Canyons (@UDOTcottonwoods) April 6, 2023
Highway 210 running through Little Cottonwood Canyon, home to Utah resorts Snowbird and Alta, is one of the most avalanche-prone roads in North America. Because the Salt Lake Area Mountains in which 210 is located got a 60+ inch storm this week—all of which fell from Sunday night to Wednesday afternoon–avalanches in both Little and neighboring Big Cottonwood Canyon have been breaking deep, far, and wide.
Images shared by Utah Department of Transportation social media coordinators, resort crews, and frightened canyon inhabitants show just how destructive the avalanches in LCC were this week, burying the road several feet deep and uprooting large trees in the process. Hence why the road has been closed for the past two days.
At the time of this writing, plow drivers are attempting to clear the highway. There is no estimated time of reopening yet but mitigation crews are working diligently and they have shared photos of the awesome aftermath of the calamitous avalanche cycle that just bombarded Highway 210. See for yourself.
🚧#RoadClosureUpdate🚧
Here’s @UDOTRegionTwo South Area District Supervisor Jake Brown with an update for #SR210. @UDOTavy avalanche mitigation & @UtahDOT road operations slide debris clearing is ongoing.#SR210 will NOT open today. There is NO ETO. pic.twitter.com/0DLmTzvXTF— UDOT Cottonwood Canyons (@UDOTcottonwoods) April 5, 2023
PHOTOS
