I hear they've had a second avalanche death, this one in your back yard:

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Our condolences go out to family and friends of a backcountry skier that was caught and killed in an avalanche on Wednesday. It occurred in the Silver Fork Meadows, an area that people are, perhaps, becoming too comfortable with during periods of instability. This is a reminder that these are serious avalanche paths. Ricardo was a friendly face that many new and crossed paths with in the backcountry. He will be greatly missed.

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My brother has stayed out of the back country on slopes as flat as 25 degrees. I thought he was being a bit over cautious but given this:

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Avalanche conditions are not tricky at all in my book right now. It is so "in our face" with continued avalanche activity breaking to the ground. What I think is tricky is trying to fight off the lure of the fresh powder. We are so used to things stabilizing relatively quickly here in the Wasatch. This is not the case this year so far. It's been a long time now that we really haven't been able to get in to our favorite terrain which we normally visit quite frequently on most years. We need to continue to leave it alone. If you find yourself trying to justify why you are able to get onto steeper slopes, you probably already know the answer to whether you should be there in the first place. A clear day today with many untracked slopes could prove to be too tempting for some people.

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I'd say he's making the right decision...

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Accident & Rescue Summary:
Preliminary details of fatality in Meadow Chutes of Silver Fork from talking with the Solitude Ski Patrol

Meadow Chutes is a popular area for backcountry skiing, which are a series of east-facing, open slopes just west, and across Silver Fork drainage from Solitude Ski Area.

The party consisted of 3 skiers. The victim was Ricardo Presnell - 51, a local backcountry skier. He descended from the ridge while the other two stood on the ridge waiting for him to descend. The slope rolls over into a steeper section about halfway down and it appeared that he triggered the slope from the breakover and the fracture propagated upslope nearly to the ridge line. The skiers on the ridge felt a collapse and they saw the avalanche start down below them and they saw the dust cloud descend into the bottom of the canyon and up the other side of the drainage.

They quickly descended and began a beacon search. The victim was buried about 6 feet deep. After about 5 minutes of digging, the ski patrol from the nearby Solitude Ski Area showed up. They witnessed the slide from the top of Powderhorn lift and one of the skiers in the party also called 911. After about 20 minutes of digging, they recovered the victim. He did not have pulse or respiration and he appeared to have suffered quite a bit of trauma, presumably from hitting the many aspen trees on the slope. Many trees were also buried in the debris. Initial estimates of total burial time is around 40 minutes.

The avalanche broke near the top of the slope, 3-4 feet deep and 250 feet wide on a 35 degree, east-facing slope. It crossed over the creek at the bottom and ran partway up the opposite side of the canyon.

We will investigate this accident further and include more detail and photos as more information becomes available.

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BOTTOM LINE
The avalanche danger is what we call "Scary Considerable" with pockets of High on any slope approaching 35 degrees or steeper that faces west, northwest, north, northeast, east and southeast. Avalanches will be very large and unsurvivable. All backcountry travelers must avoid these slopes. You can trigger these avalanches from adjacent slopes, ridges or from below.

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Here, while Bob is chest deep in Utah Powder lines, we'll be slicing up very cold firm eastern hardpack (for you westerners read hardpack equals glaciral ice ) as we go from 2 inches of rain last Monday, closing the local hill, to an arctic blast out of Canada with windchills hitting the single digits today and staying there for the most part this weekend. In preperation for some fine riding conditions I spent two hours on my skis last night (sharpening) and will go over Jen's tonight. Then, pack, a good night's sleep and charge it all weekend. Super stoked!

Sick weekend up here. They've had guns on since mid last week! Rock hard groomers mixed with the best imaginable machine made pow

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Dropping like flys out there... Heard a snowmobiler has died from injuries sustained after being burried the other day