Four die in avalanche at Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday in one of the deadliest slides in Utah history

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The avalanche occurred near Wilson Peak, on steep terrain facing north.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Search and rescue teams respond to the summit of Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday, February 6, 2021, where four skiers died in an avalanche near Wilson Peak.

| February 6, 2021, 11:30 p.m.

| Updated: February 7, 2021, 5:46 am

Four skiers died Saturday in an avalanche in the Mill Creek Canyon, making it one of the deadliest slides of the modern recreation era.

The avalanche triggered by the skier devastated eight people in their twenties in their late thirties who were in two groups roaming the country, the unified police sergeant. Said Melody Cutler. He said a group of three were from Mill Creek Canyon and a group of five were from Big Cottonwood Canyon.

All skiers were carrying avalanche safety equipment, including beacons, shovels and probes, Cutler told The Salt Lake Tribune. Unified police first received a distress call at 11:40 a.m. Cutler said. The four survivors were able to excavate the skiers who died, he added, but the bodies may not recover until Sunday morning, depending on the possibility of new slides and daylight.

The four who survived had minor injuries and are off the mountain. According to Cutler, two people survived from each group.

Drew Hardesty with the Ual Avalanche Center said the victims were experienced skiers who were well known in the community and called their deaths a terrible tragedy.

The avalanche occurred near Wilson Peak, Hardesty said, on the ridge line separating Big Cottonwood Canyon and Mill Creek Canyon. He said it happened on steep terrain facing north.

The Utah Avalanche Center had considered the risk of avalanches in the area to be “high.” Hours before the slide, he tweeted to warn that there was “High danger. Large natural avalanches at night. Dangerous avalanche conditions. Keep a low angle.”

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Search and rescue teams respond to the summit of Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday, February 6, 2021, where four skiers died in an avalanche near Wilson Peak.

According to the center’s preliminary report, the slide was 2.5 feet deep and 250 feet wide. Staff were scheduled to visit the site on Sunday.
This year, two people have died in avalanches in Utah, a snowboarder on Jan. 8 and a skier on Jan. 30. In all, 20 people across the country have died in avalanches during the 2020-21 season, 16 of whom were skiers or snowboarders. The last time an avalanche caught so many skiers or snowboarders was when five died near Loveland Pass in Colorado in 2013.

Toby Weed, a Utah Avalanche Center forecaster, told FOX 13 on Friday that since then, ten people in the United States the previous week had not returned from the country to see their families because they caused a deadly avalanche.

He said the risk of avalanches is so high that it’s not about having the right equipment this weekend, but about completely avoiding your back.

“It’s not safer now, it’s more dangerous,” Weed said.

Meteorologists predict that weakened snow conditions will persist until the end of the 2020-2021 snow season, according to the FOX 13 report.

(Photo courtesy of John Diener) A slide near Wilson Peak, above Mill Creek Canyon, shows the site of an avalanche that killed four skiers on Saturday, February 6, 2021.

UPD has closed Mill Creek Canyon as a recreation at least until Sunday, FOX 13 reported, but canyon restaurants and businesses will still be open.

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson said on Twitter that rescue teams were on Saturday afternoon. Intermountain Healthcare sent three medical planes and LifeFlight crews to help them, spokeswoman Jess Gomez said on Twitter.

Four is the highest number of deaths in an avalanche in the Wasatch Mountains since 1914, according to the Utah Avalanche Center. It would also coincide with the state record. Four people died in an avalanche triggered by the skier in the Gold Basin near Moab in 1992.

Three were killed in an avalanche that devastated 15 people in Provo Canyon, near Sundance Resort, in 2003.

Governor Spencer Cox has tweeted that the deaths are a terrible tragedy. He said people should be very careful due to the current avalanche conditions.

A skier triggered an avalanche in the area of ​​the basin near Alexander Basin on Friday, Hardesty noted in its Saturday report from the Ual Avalanche Center. That slide was two to three feet deep and up to 500 feet wide.

Hardesty also noted that the center knows of nearly 40 avalanches that slipped last week in the mountains around Salt Lake City, but the “actual number is likely to be much larger.”

FOX 13 is an informational partner at The Salt Lake Tribune.

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