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Show 20 January 1997 AVALANCHES AT ALTA BY JOHNNY “THE RHINO” BRESEE came to. fife with a vengeance on Saturday January 11th. At noon on a relatively mild Saturday, with a hard snow falling, the Superior slide path let loose with a tremendous natural slide burying a reported fifty cars in the Superior parking lot at Snowbird. This slide was the first of many across the road. The Superior slide was the first in a series which caused have developed four separate “rain layers” in the snowpack, as well as at least one layer of grapple. These “rain layers,’ and grapple equate to an extremely unsafe snowpack, which could be prone to sliding during theemite season. °in “this instance the storm deposited a very fast 40” of snow onto the unstable layers. Combined with some fairly hefty snow loading, and the tress. After the Superior slide, the D.O.T quickly moved to fall, close the road at around mid- were oblivious to anything being amiss, the D.O.T shot the major slide routes above the canyon road. Using a 105mm recoilless rifle they started the first of and incredible -. 120 shots. “Almost every shot brought a slide down.” The snow day Saturday. A volunteer group of people quickly began a probe search in 4000 safety the eventual skiers and while workers, most skiers Sheriff’s, Marshall’s and snow removal crews worked feverishly throughout the afternoon to avoid keeping people trapped overnight in the canyon. Over the next few hours road closure which trapped a reported cars buried” were reported. While the snow continued to and employees in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The causes behind this very unusual situation are. fairly clear in hindsight, and it appears we may face a season of similar difficulties. Due to the unusual conditions of the early season, we Hapless man shovels out his Bronco - now his new pickup - in Snowbird’s superior lot. Next time: VALET PARKING! they shot the slide paths sev- eral canyon became an extremely whimsical mis- Superior parking lot, in an extremely hazardous situation. Estimates of “around 50 FUGGLES” MICROBREWERY 387 WEST SECOND DOWNTOWN, Page 7 SOUTH SLC 363-7000 more times. Unfortunately so unstable was the snowpack that natural slides kept coming down, even in areas which had been recently shot. It appeared SOUATTERS 147 WEST BROADWAY, DOWNTOWN, SLC 363-BREW rr The legendary slide paths of the Cottonwood Canyons |