FILE: Mark Staples with the Utah Avalanche Center, in the area of the Pole Canyon avalanche. (Youtube screenshot)
SALT LAKE CITY — It was an active weekend for backcountry avalanches across Utah. And the Utah Avalanche Center reported that 13 of those slides were human-caused.
In its tweet, the Center referred to people being caught and carried in wind slabs, which is snow that was blown around by wind as it was falling. A wind slab can also be formed when the wind blows snow that has already fallen.
The Utah Avalanche Center said the weekend avalanches were not fatal. But the conditions are ripe for avalanches because there’s plenty of heavy, wet, and wind-drifted snow that could easily break loose.
You can stay up to date on daily avalanche conditions at the Utah Avalanche Center’s website.