Since Saturday’s snowstorm, which brought up to 2 inches per hour of snow in the Wasatch Back and more than 20 inches of snow in the upper Cottonwood Canyons, the Utah Avalanche Center has noted 17 observed avalanches from Logan to the Salt Lake City area. In the Uintas, the Utah Avalanche Center still forecasts considerable avalanche danger on mid and upper-elevation slopes, where human-triggered avalanches are likely.According to Kam Kohler, Wasatch County search and rescue commander, this is not the time to ski or recreate in the backcountry without experience. “In Idaho and Utah, we have had three deaths from avalanches in the past 10 days,” Kohler said Monday. “The snowpack is precarious. It’s waiting to come down. Meaning if you go in harm’s way, if you don’t know the terrain you’re getting into, you might put yourself in a life and death situation.”On Dec. 28 and Dec. 31, two avalanches claimed two lives. Both men were traveling alone in the backcountry. In both cases, the avalanches were human-triggered and happened because of new, heavy snow that developed on top of loose, faceted snow. This combination creates what’s known as a persistent weak layer — the culprit of most avalanche accidents. “How am I managing this avalanche problem? Easy … I am avoiding it,” the Utah Avalanche Center forecast said Tuesday morning. These long-lasting weak layers can produce avalanches weeks or months after new snow has accumulated on top of that loose, faceted snow. Kohler said if you’re going into the Wasatch Back backcountry to ski, snowshoe or snowmobile, the best thing to do is to “know before you go.” “In other words, know where you’re going, know how to navigate that terrain. … You want to be prepared for anything you might face in the backcountry,” Kohler said. “These avalanches don’t care whether I’m a search and rescue captain or if I know nothing about avalanches. … They don’t respect anybody.”In most cases, Kohler said that skiers and outdoor recreators need to rely mostly on themselves and their skiing partners if something goes wrong. If individuals rely on Wasatch Search and Rescue for a save in the case of an avalanche, Kohler said “it’s almost always too late.” “If I get a call on the backside of Park City, Deer Valley, Brighton, Snowbird … the backside of those resorts, it’s going to take my search and rescue guys 30 to 40 minutes to get there on a snowmobile,” Kohler said. “If somebody’s buried in an avalanche, the magic number is 10 minutes. If it’s more than 10 minutes, we’ve got a problem.”Kohler said that while Wasatch County does not see the same level of avalanches as in the Cottonwood Canyons, there is no way to predict where or when an avalanche will occur. Most often, Kohler said most accidents in Wasatch County “occur with a snowmobile versus something.”On Dec. 31, Wasatch County Search and Rescue responded to a call in the Strawberry Ridge area. Rescuers came to the aid of a 55-year-old woman who was injured in a snowmobile accident and used Lifeflight to get her to safety. “Today’s snowmobiles are heavy and they’re super powerful and fast,” Kohler said. No matter what kind of recreation, Kohler said it’s essential for individuals to learn how to self-rescue with tools like a beacon, a shovel and a probe. On Saturday and Sunday, Wasatch County Search and Rescue went through an intensive avalanche training as a refresh.“All those skills, they need to be exercised and practiced and honed,” Kohler said. “You can’t just pull your beacon out after three years and expect that you’re going to locate your buddy.”Kohler said that in the training, his team practiced using their avalanche rescue tools to rescue an individual or multiple individuals buried under the snow. He stressed that no matter how much training they might have, the most important thing is repetition. “We go through, in this case, everything that is involved in avalanches, whether it’s beacons or probes or shoveling … how to shovel out somebody who’s buried deep,” Kohler said. “All the avalanche rescue skills that you would expect.”With more new snow expected in the coming weeks, Kohler said the best thing to do before going out on skis or a snowmobile is to check the weather forecast and the avalanche forecast on the Utah Avalanche Center website. Forecasters update the site each morning with predictions and observations. “They do tons of reports on the snow stability, where the risks are higher or lower,” Kohler said. “Every morning before I go out, I look at the Utah Avalanche Center. … I don’t have time to dig a snow pit and see how bad the snow is, but there’s a lot of people who do.”The post Wasatch search and rescue commander warns of dangerous snowpack  appeared first on Park Record.