Press Release

Contacts:
Lisa Smith, Executive Director
Save Our Canyons January 11, 2006
(801) 539-5333

For Immediate Release

Backcountry Skiers Fearful After Heli Bombing Triggers Avalanche;
Save Our Canyons files suit.

Even before dawn on January 5th, numerous backcountry skiers were making their way up the heavily trafficked Cardiac Ridge for an early morning ski tour. At the same time, Wasatch Powderbird Guides (WPG), who have a special use permit to offer heli-ski tours in the tri-canyon area, were dropping live explosives onto the public lands below. One of the bombs triggered a massive avalanche that began on Cardiac Ridge and ran into Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

That avalanche has many backcountry skiers worried about their safety. “To say that that particular area is popular for backcountry skiers is an understatement,” said Wendy Bates, a frequent backcountry skier. “It is scary enough when they drop off a load of skiers above you, let alone when they are dropping live ammunition.” The Forest Service, which issued the heli-skiing permit, acknowledges that the number of backcountry skiers has skyrocketed. Yet the Forest Service has no recent data about how many people visit these public backcountry skiing and hiking areas, where they go, or at what times of day.

According to Steve Scheid from the Forest Service, “The resulting slide that occurred was totally within WPG’s permit. The Forest Service does not want to question the professionalism of WPG nor do we want to tell them when and where they can bomb.”

James May was in the area at the time of the slide and captured it in stop-action photos. May says he is very concerned about the bombing practices of WPG. “It seems to me that it is precisely the job of the FS to do just that: constantly question the relevance and appropriateness of their policies… It seems to me that allowing the WPG to be the sole exception in the non-motorized tri-canyon area, and then not monitoring or supervising their bombing policies, is not only irresponsible and dangerous, but also in direct conflict with the purpose of having a National Forest Service.”

The idea of live ammunition being used on public lands has long been an issue of concern. WPG explosives triggered numerous large avalanches last year, and an extraordinarily large one that ran several miles the year before. Much of the debate circles around what WPG is allowed to do. Their current permit allows for “stability testing”, but not avalanche control work in the backcountry. “Detonations of that size do not in any way seem like mere stability testing,” said Bates. “There is no possible way that WPG can be aware of where all the people are in the backcountry when they are detonating their bombs and that fact is very scary.”

The Forest Service reissued WPG’s special use permit last year and permits them to drop bombs to test slope stability. Save Our Canyons (SOC) has filed suit against the Forest Service, charging that they failed to study the safety hazards inherent in the use of explosives in such heavily-used areas. “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.”

“Without carefully checking the area from the ground, the length of this avalanche makes it inconceivable that WPG could be certain no other users were in the path of the avalanche. Combining these observations with the fact that WPG intentionally released a massive and unsurvivable avalanche leads us to conclude that only good fortune prevented fatalities on the morning of the January 5th,” said May.

Concerned backcountry skiers have composed a petition to the Forest Service that details the events of January 5th with maps and photographs. The petition has been posted online at: www.xmission.com/~ceyre/WPG_Petition_Final.pdf

Additional Contacts:
Steve Scheid, (801) 733-2689 James May (801)-536-1519
Winter Sports Coordinator Backcountry Skier
Salt Lake Ranger District Wendy Bates (208) 631-1633
Backcountry Skier

Click here to view Cardiff Fork Avalanche images