ALTA, Utah — It was a busy day at Snowbird as skiers trekked up Little Cottonwood Canyon to enjoy the 23 inches of fresh powder that remained after this week's storm.
While Wednesday was a skier’s paradise, a lot in the canyon can change in a short amount of time. Just the day before, multiple vehicles were partially buried after an avalanche that forced the canyon to close to most traffic during the night.
“Little Cottonwood Canyon is the most avalanche-prone canyon in North America with 64 slide paths, so between UDOT and our ski patrol, we work together,” explained Snowbird's Director of Marketing Kelsey James.
While James admitted that the resort had a lot of unforeseen avalanche mitigation needs the night before, Justin Puchar felt that need firsthand.
“We inch up a couple hundred feet, and all of a sudden, we’re just in this car, and bam! I like flinch in the driver’s seat and we just see powder all over us. And we just instantly know. It’s an avalanche that hit us,” detailed Puchar the day after being caught up in the avalanche.
Video showed Puchar's car, along with two others, stuck near the Snowbird entrance on SR-210. The snow reached all the way up to his sideview mirror.
Little Cottonwood Canyon reopens to downhill traffic following avalanche:
“We’re just looking around and the Jeep that was right in front of us is now 20 to 30 feet over there," he explained. "The truck in front of them is further and turned.”
The Snowbird team has different ways to mitigate the terrain, like using their Wyssen towers, but their priority is to keep their guests safe.
“We take it seriously," James explained. "We made sure we were going through parking lots last night, all hands on deck from our employee perspective, getting guests inside because it can be dangerous. It’s really that sort of lore of Snowbird when we go into interlodge, and it’s really a magical thing if you get to experience it. Especially if you wake up to a day like today.”
Even though the experience was pretty intense for Puchar, he says he’ll be back at Snowbird soon — and prepared for whatever comes his way.
<Justin Puchar/ Skier>
“This is what you get when you go in the backcountry. You don’t think, when you’re done skiing yeah you’re safe. But you’re safer there but there’s always time where danger can happen.”
