Smiths Fork in the Salt River Range

From: Bob Comey BTAC

The following information was obtained by Bob Comey of the Bridger Teton Avalanche Center during a visit to the site of the Smiths Fork avalanche fatality. A 41 year old Star Valley man became the seventh avalanche fatality of the season in Wyoming late in the day on Monday February 24, 2003. He had been snomobiling with four other friends in the Poker Hollow area of the Smiths Fork drainage of the Salt River Range.

The five riders had been riding in the area when they descended an avalanche path on the west side of Poker Creek. They descended one at a time.

The victim was the fifth rider to enter the starting zone in the same area and triggered a soft slab avalanche (SS-AV-3-0) with a crown depth of two feet. He was engulfed in the slide and swept to the toe where he was buried beneath four feet of debris face down with his head downhill. The victim was the only member of the party without an avalanche transceiver. One person then went to call for help while the remaining three riders used two probes to search for the victim. His snowmobile was quickly located near the toe of the slide and the probing was initially focused in the vicinity of the snowmobile. Lincoln County Search & Rescue volunteers were reported to have located the victim with a probe line about 10 feet uphill of the snowmobile several hours after the event occured.

This avalanche path faced east. The starting zone of the path was at an elevation of 8,700 feet. The victim was recovered in the toe of the debris at an elevation of 8,100 feet. The lenght of this slide was about 2,000 feet. A crown face profile indicates this soft slab

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Late yesterday afternoon (5:10 PM) on February 24th a snowmobiler died in an avalanche in the Poker Flats area of the Smiths Fork drainage in the Salt River Range of Wyoming. Information is limited at this time.

An avalanche specialist from the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center (BTAC) is scheduled to visit the incident site tomorrow. The snowmobiler is believed to have been completely buried without a transciever. The Lincoln County Search and Rescue group was reported to have located the victim with a probe line at 7:45 PM. The avalanche hazard in this area was rated as considerable by the BTAC on Monday.