JACKSON, Wyo. — After a slide in Granite Canyon carried a skier on Monday, Feb. 17, the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center (BTAC) announced an avalanche warning is in effect for the Tetons, Salt River and Wyoming Ranges, Snake River Range and Togwotee Pass.
According to BTAC, the skier was rescued from Granite Canyon at Freefall Wall area, outside of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort boundary, by Jackson Hole Ski Patrol, Teton County Search and Rescue and Grand Teton National Park Rangers after being caught by a small but deep slide. The skier sustained an injury to a lower extremety, but no other information is known at this time, the BTAC report states.
As of 7:36 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 18, the BTAC reported that avalanche danger in the Salt River and Wyoming Ranges are rated “high,” and the Tetons, Togwotee Pass and Snake River Range are rated “considerable.”
The BTAC’s report for the Tetons says that riders or skiers are likely to trigger avalanches today.
According to BTAC, “conditions are dangerous and demand respect. While some terrain could be stable, other slopes could fail. Triggered avalanches could be small, involving recently fallen snow or large, involving weak layers buried earlier in the month.”
BTAC Forecaster Michael Rheam recommends that riders and skiers stay on low angle and low consequence terrain because avalanches could be triggered while being on, near or under steep slopes.
“The combination of recent snow and wind are creating dangerous avalanche conditions at all elevations, but especially on wind-affected slopes above 9,000′,” Rheam wrote in Tuesday’s Snow and Safety Report. “You could trigger avalanches involving just the recent storm snow or a very large avalanche that fails on weak layers deep in the snowpack. Human-triggered avalanches are most likely in recently wind-loaded terrain but are also possible in areas more sheltered from the wind.”
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning that will remain in effect until 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
