Snow bunnies beware: Avalanches a danger near Logan
Avalanches kill more than 150 people worldwide every year, and for locals Anthony Zollinger and Stan Checketts, the anguish of being caught in one of these rarely survived cataclysms is all too real.
Stan Checketts, a local businessman and experienced snowmobile rider, was buried in a slab slide near Mount Logan after the first snowfall of this season. A slab slide isn’t a full avalanche, but can still be deadly. Checketts bought a dozen beacons that are used to help find people if they’re buried in an avalanche, but on the day he was buried, Checketts and his group hadn’t brought theirs. They left them home that day thinking they wouldn’t need them because not very much snow had fallen.
Checketts has had to dig people out of avalanches before, and on this particular day, was lucky his group was able to find him. Sometimes an avalanche can hit even the most experienced riders.
“We never let our guard down,” Checketts said.
Checketts emphasized the importance of always having beacons and shovels, no matter how experienced you are, or where you’re going in the mountains.
“Be prepared all the time, no matter what,” Checketts said.
Anthony Zollinger, a native of Millville and a member of Zbros racing, was buried in an avalanche in Providence Canyon in 2000. Zollinger has been riding snowmobiles for years, and said he never thought an avalanche would happen where they were, but he was buried before he had any time to react.
“Within 10 seconds, I was totally buried,” Zollinger said. “My sled was eight feet under, I was still sitting on it.”
Zollinger said the only part of his body he could move was his head, which was six feet under the snow. He couldn’t even move his toes because he was packed in so tight. Luckily for Zollinger, his brother Lance had seen where he was buried, and was able, with the help of others in their group, to dig him out before it was too late.
Zollinger said he was buried for about a minute, but it felt like it was a lot longer than that. He said the force of the avalanche was overwhelming.
“It’s amazing,” Zollinger said. “The speed and the power – it just went dark.”
According to Guy Curtis, a member of the Cache County Search and Rescue Team, avalanche searches often turn into recoveries, not rescues.
“The key is be prepared, have avalanche beacons,” Curtis said.
A few years ago, Curtis was a member of a search team trying to find three skiers who had been buried by an avalanche in Dry Canyon, which is south of Logan Canyon. The three people they were searching for were “very experienced outdoors people,” Curtis said. By the time the group was found, it was already too late. The skiers had avalanche beacons, and that was how the Search and Rescue team was able to find the bodies.
Curtis urged that caution must always be used, and that sometimes it’s better to just stay home if the danger is too high.
“Sometimes it’s not safe to go,” Curtis said. “Know what you’re getting into.”
-scottsj@cc.usu.edu