KSL is reporting possibly one person trap .... PLEASE tell me all my mafia brudas are home sipping eggnog tonight! 
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Another UTAH AVEY (Timberlakes area)
- Thread starter NewMTNsldr
- Start date
hope everyone is ok!!!
news says thousand peaks ranch...
http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5314343&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
prayers are with family and friends...
KSL web site is reporting that the slide was near Oakley in the Thousand Peaks Ranch area. Timberlakes is above Heber and below Radio Tower. Is there a Timberlakes in the TPR area?
I am at home, feeling the pain for another loss. Take care everyone.KSL is reporting possibly one person trap .... PLEASE tell me all my mafia brudas are home sipping eggnog tonight!
We have ridden the Super Bowl and surrounding areas for years. Every time we drop down in there its like walking on pins and needles every time someone makes a steep climb. There is always signs of slides in the area.
Be careful!
Be careful!
I love sledding............but, it's not worth dying for! Please be smart and safe!
Timberlakes or Oakley??
News is reporting Thousand Peaks area above Oakley. Did something go down in Timberlakes are too??
News is reporting Thousand Peaks area above Oakley. Did something go down in Timberlakes are too??
KSL initially said Timber Lakes and now have changed to Thousand Peaks... sorry for the families loss
Timberlakes or Oakley??
News is reporting Thousand Peaks area above Oakley. Did something go down in Timberlakes too??
News is reporting Thousand Peaks area above Oakley. Did something go down in Timberlakes too??
I just got off the phone with Dave Johnsaon and he knew the man that was killed. He said it wasn't a "Mafia" member, but still a sad deal. Between this and the scare yesterday in Star Valley I have been pretty restless. Dave told me the victims name, but I don't feel like I should post it. He was going to get signed on to the new Snowest and post some info.
Prayers go out to the family
jw
Prayers go out to the family
jw
From what i have heard the avalanche happened in the area above 1000 peaks knows as the "Superbowls". The scarry part was i rode there on sunday... Its only gonna get worse as the week goes on here in utah. Up to another 4-5 feet in the mountains before the week is over.
This is so unfortunate....the Utah snowmobilers have fought the owner of the thousand peaks resort about closing access to the area for years... I guess he should have accepted the assistants offered by the public…the advice and knownledge offered by...us may have helped....
C
Colorado4fun
Well-known member
Prayers go out to the family and friends. T
The news is reporting the victim is 50+ year old Dave Balls from Oakley. Very tragic event, out with his family. Prayers for the family and friends.
Please be safe everyone!!!
Please be safe everyone!!!
OAKLEY - A 53-year-old Oakley man was snowmobiling with his four sons Christmas Day when a 400-foot-wide avalanche swept over him and killed him near the Thousand Peaks recreation area in Summit County.
Dave Balls, owner of Valley Ready Mix in Salt Lake County, was overcome by a sheet of snow 4 to 5 feet deep that plunged about 500 vertical feet in the Super Bowl area of Whitney Basin, said Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center.
The 3:15 p.m. slide was the second avalanche death in Summit County in three days, and forecasters are warning of continued danger in the northern mountains.
The victim's eldest son, Ryan Balls, was riding in front of his dad when the avalanche unleashed, said Lynette Panter, Dave Balls' sister.
"[Ryan] was able to outrun it," Panter said. "Dave was right behind him"
Dave Balls was "doing what he loved best" when the tragedy struck, said Bishop Howard Sorensen of the LDS Church's Oakley First Ward.
"He was up enjoying the day when the slide broke loose," Sorensen said. "He just wasn't able to outrun [it]."
Balls had two daughters, adopted from Russia, in addition to his four sons, Sorensen said. He was known throughout the Oakley community for opening his home and was "about as generous a person as you can find," Sorensen
said.
Sorensen said late Tuesday that family members had gathered at Balls' home and that he would be visiting with them today to discuss funeral arrangements.
Balls, who was born in southern Idaho and grew up on the Salt Lake Valley's east bench, graduated from Cottonwood High. He started Valley Ready Mix with five used concrete trucks he bought with business partner and brother-in-law Brent "Butch" Baker. Outside work, Panter said, he enjoyed riding off-road vehicles in the wilderness.
"Dave was an all-around active, fun-loving kid," she said.
On Tuesday, Balls took his sons - ranging from 19 to 30 years old - on one of their regular outings, Panter said, this time on newly bought snowmobiles.
They were riding near the Thousand Peaks wilderness area, a popular spot for snowmobilers that lies about 30 miles east of Park City. The area held a "considerable" to "high" risk of avalanches because of its high elevation and because it faces east, Gordon said.
That danger will increase as mountains get more snow today, Gordon said.
"Basically, what we've done is added a lot of weight to a weak snowpack," he said. "We've got strong snow on top of weak snow, and that's a bad combination."
The slide marked the second Summit County avalanche fatality in three days. On Sunday, a slide at The Canyons ski resort killed Jesse R. Williams, 30, of Grand Junction, Colo., and critically injured an 11-year-old boy.
Weber Canyon has seen its share of avalanche deaths in recent years. On Jan. 31, 2002, a 29-year-old cross-country skier, who was with a group near Windy Ridge on the private Thousand Peaks Ranch, died after a slide. In March 2001, two 29-year-old friends were killed in an avalanche on a mountain near Oakley in Summit County.
Dave Balls, owner of Valley Ready Mix in Salt Lake County, was overcome by a sheet of snow 4 to 5 feet deep that plunged about 500 vertical feet in the Super Bowl area of Whitney Basin, said Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center.
The 3:15 p.m. slide was the second avalanche death in Summit County in three days, and forecasters are warning of continued danger in the northern mountains.
The victim's eldest son, Ryan Balls, was riding in front of his dad when the avalanche unleashed, said Lynette Panter, Dave Balls' sister.
"[Ryan] was able to outrun it," Panter said. "Dave was right behind him"
Dave Balls was "doing what he loved best" when the tragedy struck, said Bishop Howard Sorensen of the LDS Church's Oakley First Ward.
"He was up enjoying the day when the slide broke loose," Sorensen said. "He just wasn't able to outrun [it]."
Balls had two daughters, adopted from Russia, in addition to his four sons, Sorensen said. He was known throughout the Oakley community for opening his home and was "about as generous a person as you can find," Sorensen
said.
Sorensen said late Tuesday that family members had gathered at Balls' home and that he would be visiting with them today to discuss funeral arrangements.
Balls, who was born in southern Idaho and grew up on the Salt Lake Valley's east bench, graduated from Cottonwood High. He started Valley Ready Mix with five used concrete trucks he bought with business partner and brother-in-law Brent "Butch" Baker. Outside work, Panter said, he enjoyed riding off-road vehicles in the wilderness.
"Dave was an all-around active, fun-loving kid," she said.
On Tuesday, Balls took his sons - ranging from 19 to 30 years old - on one of their regular outings, Panter said, this time on newly bought snowmobiles.
They were riding near the Thousand Peaks wilderness area, a popular spot for snowmobilers that lies about 30 miles east of Park City. The area held a "considerable" to "high" risk of avalanches because of its high elevation and because it faces east, Gordon said.
That danger will increase as mountains get more snow today, Gordon said.
"Basically, what we've done is added a lot of weight to a weak snowpack," he said. "We've got strong snow on top of weak snow, and that's a bad combination."
The slide marked the second Summit County avalanche fatality in three days. On Sunday, a slide at The Canyons ski resort killed Jesse R. Williams, 30, of Grand Junction, Colo., and critically injured an 11-year-old boy.
Weber Canyon has seen its share of avalanche deaths in recent years. On Jan. 31, 2002, a 29-year-old cross-country skier, who was with a group near Windy Ridge on the private Thousand Peaks Ranch, died after a slide. In March 2001, two 29-year-old friends were killed in an avalanche on a mountain near Oakley in Summit County.
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