Item: Avalanche Fatalities in Utah in the Modern Era
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Title: Avalanche Fatalities in Utah in the Modern Era
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop 2016 Proceedings, Breckenridge, CO, USA
Authors:
- Drew Hardesty [ Utah Avalanche Center, Salt Lake City, UT, USA ]
Date: 2016-10-02
Abstract: The Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) has records of Utah avalanche fatalities for the modern era, totaling 116 deaths. For this study, the first avalanche fatality of the modern recreational era occurred near Alta on January 1, 1940. Fatalities in the mining era, ending in the early 1900s, were not considered. The primary aims of this study were to understand who was getting killed in avalanches, where they were getting killed, and what types of avalanches were killing them. By understanding these factors, and looking at trends over time, we might start to better understand how to forecast, educate, and otherwise influence the decision making of winter backcountry recreationists in Utah. As with any papers looking at statistics, it might be tempting to look at these fatalities as just numbers. But at the end of the day, each incident is not a number at all. Each incident is a human being – a person with a family and a community, with dreams and aspirations whose life was taken from them by an avalanche.
Object ID: ISSW16_P3.19.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords:
Page Number(s): 1024-1029
Subjects: historical avalanche data backcountry recreationists avalanche fatalities
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