Backcountry skiers protest use of explosives

Larry_Trotter
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20 years 4 weeks ago #173886 by Larry_Trotter

Backcountry skiers protest use of explosives was created by Larry_Trotter

I hope they get this situation figured out.... - rux From: seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/snowsport...04_webheliski13.html

Backcountry skiers protest use of explosives to spark Utah avalanche  By PAUL FOY The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY - An activist group dedicated to preserving the Wasatch Range criticized a helicopter ski outfit Thursday for deliberately triggering a massive avalanche off Cardiac Ridge, a favorite stop for backcountry skiers. Save Our Canyons said Wasatch Powderbird Guides set off the avalanche, as it often does for safety of its clients, without concern for backcountry skiers already gathered in one of the most popular alpine bowls along the Wasatch Range. The helicopter company insisted it took safety precautions and vigorously disputed a complaint filed with the U.S. Forest Service. Nobody was caught up in the Jan. 5. slide, which Save Our Canyons documented in photographs, but the event underscored the ongoing conflict between skiers delivered by helicopter at $770 a day and others who make their own way into the mountains. It is a conflict more pronounced in Utah's Wasatch Range, where deep powder skiing is less than a 45-minute drive from a metropolis of 1.6 million people, than anywhere in the West. Save Our Canyons is suing the Forest Service to overturn its approval of a five-year operating permit for Wasatch Powderbird Guides. It said the guide service should be dropping lighter explosives to test a slope's stability, but has a history of setting off devastating slides that can run for miles and easily kill anyone on the ground. "It is an accident waiting to happen," said Lisa Smith, executive director of Save Our Canyons. "We have seen an enormous increase in backcountry skiing and snowshoeing over the last five years. It is only a matter of time until we see an avalanche triggered by these explosives that ends tragically." Rusty Dassing, a senior helicopter guide, said the crew made a sweep of the bowl before dropping explosives. "For 34 years we've been doing this work without incident under contract for state of Utah, the ski areas and ourselves," Dassing said. "This is a regular practice. It's what we do and have done for a long time." Dassing insisted that backcountry skier Andrew McLean and others who filed the complaint never were in harm's way. He added that McLean, who is known for making scary runs down steep chutes, "has a trail of people who have died skiing behind him." McLean said three skiers and a mountaineer have died on journeys with him, and that he's witnessed many other backcountry deaths. But he said few things were more dangerous than helicopters dropping explosives and that Wasatch Powderbird Guides should stay out of popular Cardiac bowl. Kevin O'Rourke, the general manager of the guide service, acknowledged conflicts in a previous interview with the Associated Press. "It's world-class skiing, in terrain and snow quality," O'Rourke said of the so-called northern powder circuit, a group of northerly, wind-sheltered Wasatch canyons where the snow gathers deep and pillowy. "Those areas are prized by people. We angle for access to those high north-facing bowls because of the good skiing." At the center of the powder circuit is Cardiac Ridge, an hour's hike and 1,700 feet up from the base of Alta ski area. On Jan. 5, backcountry skiers were making the way to the ridge before dawn. At the same time, Wasatch Powderbird Guides was dropping live explosives off Cardiac Ridge. One shot triggered a slide 7 to 10 feet deep and 450 feet wide. It ran for nearly a mile, and was characterized by the Forest Service's Utah Avalanche Center as "basically unsurvivable." Save Our Canyons said one group of backcountry skiers was poised to drop into the bowl before the slide was released. Another group was protected from the blast by a ridge line. The group's complaint asks the Forest Service to review the use of explosives in the backcountry. There was no immediate response from the Salt Lake Ranger District of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. According to Save Our Canyons, Forest Service officials have said they won't second-guess the use of explosives by the helicopter outfit. Wasatch Powderbird Guides : www.powderbird.com/

Save Our Canyons : www.saveourcanyons.org

Wasatch-Cache National Forest : www.fs.fed.us/r4/wcnf/

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