SE4:EP8 - Drew Hardesty: Conversation in a Snow Pit

With each successive two-foot snowfall, skiers and riders at resorts rejoice. But in the Utah backcountry with no avalanche mitigation, that fresh snow often sits on a sugary, crusty weak layer and can be prone to sliding. Last Chair headed into the Utah backcountry with Utah Avalanche Center pro Drew Hardesty for a conversation in a snow pit, analyzing those weak layers from storms going back to October and talking avalanche safety.

A seasoned avalanche safety veteran, Hardesty was a gracious backcountry guide, offering insights into the weather and how to prepare yourself to be safe.

Our outing was a simple one, heading up from the Guardsman Pass Road trailhead at the upper reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, climbing through magical aspen trees up a low angle ridgeline on the western flank of 10420. Finding a clearing amidst the snow-laden evergreens, Hardesty skillfully dug a nearly six-foot deep snow pit.

The conversation covered a broad range of avalanche safety topics, with insightful analysis into the layering created by each successive snowfall, and the weak layers of sugary snow between each – potentially a hazard when the snow facets don’t bond and the new snow breaks.

Hardesty is part of a dedicated team of professionals at the Utah Avalanche Center, providing daily insights and forecasts, as well as education, to help keep backcountry skiers and riders safe.

Listen in to learn more. Here’s a sample of Last Chair’s episode 8: Conversation in a Snow Pit with Drew Hardesty of the Utah Avalanche Center.

Drew, set the stage for us on the avalanche problem we’re facing.

Early season we had quite a bit of snowfall in October. It continued into early November and it really started to stack up. But then the storm shut down there for a couple of weeks. And as I like to say, the weather does the devil's work. And by that I meant that snow sitting on the ground started to get weak, sugary, less cohesion at the surface. And that has become our weak layer for these subsequent storms.

In your experience, what is one of the biggest red flags here in Utah?

I did a study a few years ago looking at all of our avalanche accidents in the modern era going back to 1941 – almost 130 avalanche fatalities since then. And we have way more higher proportion of fatalities from people accessing the backcountry from the ski areas and the lifts than any other state. Easily 20% of our fatalities have been people going and accessing the backcountry from the ski areas.

What goes into forecasting by Utah Avalanche Center?

Our forecasts are predicated upon the field work of not just our avalanche forecasters, but whole platoons of what we call professional observers. And again, just that great communication that we have with all of our snow safety brothers and sisters and again with Utah Department of Transportation, the guides out there, it's really fundamental to be out in the snow like we are today, to look and see what's going on with the snowpack, what's going on with the weather. 

Drew, as you look at this snow pit wall, what are the important points?

As we're looking here, we have about two feet of our slab here. And the slab is nothing more than what we'd call a cohesive plate of snow, something that's cohesive and strong, that's sitting on something weak – sugary snow. It's just very crystalline and weak. 

What’s the heritage of snow safety here in Utah?

Utah is the birthplace of avalanche science and avalanche mitigation in North America, upper Little Cottonwood Canyon in the late ‘30s and ‘40s. These grandfathers, Monte Atwater and Ed LaChapelle, really built avalanche science and avalanche forecasting that has set the benchmark for anyone else in North America. So it's an honor to be part of that lineage here.

Do you have a favorite backcountry place in Utah?

It's the Provo Mountains. The Provo mountains are some of the most radical and extreme and beautiful part of our Wasatch – seldom traveled. And it's very dangerous terrain in there. And you have to be right. You have to pay attention. And I'd have to say that the Provo area mountains are my favorite part of the Wasatch Range.

Drew in one word can you sum up what it means to be in this beautiful Utah backcountry?

Boy, I just can't Tom. But It's a good life. It's a good life.