The four people who died in Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday have been identified; they were all in their twenties.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County Search and Rescue members watch as a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter lands, carrying the belongings and body of one of four people who died in an avalanche in Mill Creek Canyon. Sunday, February 7, 2021.
Editor’s Note • This story features sensitive photography of Sunday’s recovery of the four skiers who died in Saturday’s avalanche.
The deadly avalanche that swept eight skiers off a mountain in Utah on Saturday occurred against a backdrop of rising backcountry usage that coincided with dangerous avalanche conditions created by the shallowest midwinter snowpack in years.
On Sunday, the Unified Police Department identified the four skiers who died in the headwaters of Mill Creek Canyon, just outside Salt Lake City, in an area called Wilson Glade. They were members of two separate groups that happened to be on the same slope when the avalanche was released.
Six skiers were completely buried. Two were able to free themselves and search for their companions using transceivers that carry backcountry travelers into avalanche terrain, according to a report posted by the Utah Avalanche Center. Two of the buried skiers were found alive, while four were not found in time. The skiers who died are:
Sarah Moughamian, 29, from Sandy.
• Louis Holian, 26, from Salt Lake City.
• Stephanie Hopkins, 26, from Salt Lake City.
• Thomas Louis Steinbrecher, 23, from Salt Lake City.
The four survivors, all male, ages 23 to 38, were taken off the mountain by LifeFlight helicopters and crews. None of them had life-threatening injuries and they were not hospitalized.
Due to unstable snow conditions, efforts to recover the four deceased skiers were interrupted on Saturday and resumed early on Sunday. By noon, the bodies of the victims had been removed from the mountain.
Wilson Glade is adjacent to Alexander Basin, a sheer bowl below Mill Creek’s Big Cottonwood Canyon canyon, beneath the shadows of Wilson Peak and Gobblers Knob. The eight skiers were on Wilson’s northeast side in separate groups, a five-member group entering from Big Cottonwood Canyon and a three-member group entering from below, officials said.
Rescue officers “checked [the area] this one [Sunday] in the morning to see if they needed avalanche control, ”said Unified Police Sgt. Melody Cutler. They chose not to, but the rescuers are here now. It’s still quite unstable up there. So they try to be as careful as possible. “
The Unified Police Department transported people and equipment to the avalanche site on a helicopter borrowed from the Utah Department of Public Safety.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tactical flight operator Nick Napierski of Utah Department of Public Safety, right, on Sunday helps Salt Lake County Search and Rescue members remove a net containing the personal effects and body of one of the four people who died Saturday in an avalanche in Mill Creek Canyon.
The flights were organized from the parking lot where Mill Creek Canyon road is closed for winter. After dropping off the search crew, the pilot left the canyon to refuel and returned to the scene of the accident around noon to return the victims to the assembly area, where a medical examiner was waiting.
It is not yet known whether the four skiers died from traumatic injuries or asphyxiation; the slide dragged two of them through areas of trees, Cutler said.
Officials closed the canyon, popular with Nordic skiers and hikers this time of year, in the gathering place, while the entire canyon remained open under the terraces on Sunday.
All eight skiers were well prepared and had the necessary equipment for the conditions, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office said. “Our hearts go out to the loved ones of the skiers who were lost in Saturday’s avalanche,” said Sheriff Rosie Rivera.
Saturday’s tragedy was testament not only to this winter’s unstable snow package, but possibly also to the hustle and bustle of the Wasatch hinterland, where the beautiful snow and ski terrain is easily accessible from plowed mountain roads and ski resorts. In recent years, Utah avalanche forecasters have warned that a multi-victim accident could occur, given the growing number of parties touring close together.
The pandemic appears to be pushing even more powder seekers into the Wasatch hinterland, thanks in part to capacity limits that ski resorts have put in place to reduce the risk of coronavirus transmission. Avalanche forecaster Craig Gordon said the avalanches have been particularly dangerous in recent weeks due to the low snowfall this winter.
“It is completely contradictory to think that it has barely snowed this winter, yet we are seeing extremely dangerous avalanches,” said Gordon. “Especially in a shallow snow layer, the layers become weak, they become sugary, they become an unstable base.”
Thin snow packs, such as those recorded in the Utah mountains this winter, tend to lose their cohesion as moisture moves through the snow pack more quickly.
“The instability has lingered for a long time and is now buried and in the lower part of our snowpack,” said Gordon. “Every time we load it with new snow or wind, the dormant layers are reactivated and brought back to life. And it’s the perfect combination for deceptively tricky avalanche conditions here in the Wasatch. “
“HIGH DANGER areas exist this morning in steeply elevated terrain. This danger is most pronounced on slopes north to southeast. There is a SIGNIFICANT danger in the middle heights and this is where we may see some brief calls today. Avalanches can be 1.5 meters deep and more than a hundred meters wide. “
The avalanche danger in Utah is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
“What we need to get this snowpack to heal and to turn the corner, suggesting at least a glimmer of hope, is a consistent storm course and we need to put some thick layers of insulation on top of this snowpack,” said Gordon.
“But right now we’re just getting nickel and darkened, and once it starts to snow and it really starts to snow, this won’t happen overnight,” he said. “Avalanche conditions are getting really crazy or difficult. … This has been with us for a while. “
Former Salt Lake City mayor and avid outdoorsman Ralph Becker was skiing near the area of the avalanche on Saturday. The 68-year-old saw helicopters and hospital helicopters fly overhead.
Becker said the tragic event occurred after a period when, as a result of work by the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center and others, the state has seen a significant reduction in avalanche accidents and deaths. Officials and agencies had warned there would be dangerous avalanches on the weekend due to the recent snow.
“If you are very careful and understand the avalanche conditions, you greatly reduce your risk,” Becker said. “Obviously that’s a slope that people shouldn’t have been up yesterday.”
While the backcountry has seen exceptionally high-risk conditions this winter, many people trapped by the pandemic have gone skiing, including those with less experience.
Becker hopes Saturday’s avalanche will serve as a wake-up call. “I hope it catches people’s attention and makes them much more careful,” he said.
“I don’t want people to go into the backcountry and enjoy it,” he said, noting the “huge amount [of] health benefits, physical and mental for us. “But, he said,” that’s an unnecessary risk of getting up such a slope in the conditions we have this winter, at least in the run-up to this point in time.
“I hope it will make people increase their caution in the hinterland, because yesterday was so tragic and huge.”