Tony Grove Avalanche!!

[JedInUtah]

Alright what gives!! Guy has an airbag and so you would think somewhat educated! Logan area had HIGH AVALANCHE DANGER! Red status and even an avalanche warning issued. Yet still ventured into the upper steep terrain in Tony's by Mt. Magog. FYI- red avy danger, don't go to Tony's, or Bountiful, at least the upper exposed bowls with the big hills. If we haven't had enough warnings about avalanche conditions this season, here is yet another one!

Guess he missed TGitt's video and that was with Moderate danger.

Maybe I am missing something here, but I just keep seeing these reports and think to myself. Pull your head out!!! It's not worth it!! There is plenty of boondocking to be had without being in big bowls and exposed terrain that is ripe to take your life.

Rant over and glad he made it out ok! If you (Rhees Neibaur) read this, I would love to know more details and exactly what happened.

-Did you know the avalanche conditions and warnings?
-Did it slide on its own or were you hill climbing/sidehilling a huge open slope?

Seems a lesson learned.

Utah Avalanche Center report- details coming

Man survives massive avalanche thanks to airbag and friend

LOGAN — It was a river of snow. "Heavy" and "scary," a snowmobiler said, recalling his brush with a potentially deadly avalanche Wednesday at Tony Grove in Logan Canyon.

Rhees Neibaur, 27, was buried alive on his side beneath the avalanche that rained down from a bowl-shaped hill.

"It felt like I got hit by a truck from behind," Neibaur said. "I automatically couldn't move any of my limbs and it pushed the snow right up into my helmet and covered my mouth."

Under the snow, the passing seconds were agonizing. "I mean, I'm a real calm rider - that's how you get out of a lot of sticky situations," Neibaur said. "In this case, I was screaming like a little girl and I never felt so helpless. Ever."

Fortunately for Neibaur, a friend watched him go under the snow and then spotted the top-third of his avalanche air bag vest - which in theory floats the person wearing it toward the top of the avalanche debris. Neibaur had pulled the rip cord as he went under the snow.

"Dug around my head and started tugging on my helmet and I told him I was alright - just get me out of there," Neibaur said. "I was shaking pretty good but it was calming to know somebody was there already."

Neibaur said his sled was completely buried 50 yards down the hill.

"Just digging the sled out kind of let me know," Neibaur said. "It was just like concrete."

Neibaur said he believed the airbag - something he'd gone without most of his life - in fact saved his life. Somewhat cost prohibitive at $600 to $1,000 a pack, Neibaur bought the pack two years ago.

Neibaur said his friends had already bought some, as the vests started gaining popularity in the United States. "The kid that watched me go under and then found me with the piece of the bag that was at the top - he kept saying over and over, that bag just totally saved your life and I believe it did."

Utah Avalanche Center director Bruce Tremper said the air bag vests - which have been used in Europe the past 15 years - were responsible for saving other recent avalanche victims in Washington and Colorado. He warned, though, the devices aren't 100 percent effective.

"There was another one in Colorado recently where somebody was in this very dangerous terrain - a lot of trees and rocks to hit on the way down - and of course it didn't make any difference because the air bag was completely shredded with holes in it and he was buried, I think, 3 or 4 feet-deep," Tremper said. "He was in zero-tolerance-for-error kind of terrain where any kind of avalanche would have killed you regardless of what kind of equipment you had."

Tremper said there had been roughly 340 cases since the air bag vests' inception where people have been buried under avalanches with them. Tremper said 10 percent of people caught in avalanches die, compared to about 3 percent of people wearing the airbags. He said of those who have died in avalanches, it's believed the air bag vests would have saved 20 to 50 percent of them. "It does help quite a bit," Tremper said.

A forecaster from the Utah Avalanche Center was investigating Thursday the site of the avalanche that, according to Tremper, "took out the entire bowl."

 

[POWDR]

Thanks Jed. Always good rant for a good reason.

Stay safe folks- If you havent taken an avy class, please do so. Put your knowledge to the snow and practice often.

 

[skibreeze]

We were just in Utah earlier this week and we knew that the danger was high. We were sitting in an area in the trees with just a slight slope with a steeper one a few hundred yards away and the experienced the biggest whoomp any of us has ever felt. It was enough to see the trees move that were on the slope. We also dug a pit to the ground and there was about a foot of sugar at the ground. Pretty much the same as here in alot of Colorado.

 

[JSCC]

There is plenty of area around Tonys to stay out of danger. The hill that slid is right above the Naomi peak trail and one of the main routes to the higher area. Had these guys stayed off the hill they would have been fine. I also believe the Avy danger was yellow and green leading up to this Avy on Wednesday. It goes to show you how fast conditions change and need to be considered on every trip no matter the Avy rating. I watched with my own eyes this same hill slide last year and it makes a huge pileup at the toe of the slide. The guy is lucky for sure!

 

[JedInUtah]

There is plenty of area around Tonys to stay out of danger. The hill that slid is right above the Naomi peak trail and one of the main routes to the higher area. Had these guys stayed off the hill they would have been fine. I also believe the Avy danger was yellow and green leading up to this Avy on Wednesday. It goes to show you how fast conditions change and need to be considered on every trip no matter the Avy rating. I watched with my own eyes this same hill slide last year and it makes a huge pileup at the toe of the slide. The guy is lucky for sure!

I agree, that's why I added, the upper bowls.