Install the app
How to install the app on iOS

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

  • Don't miss out on all the fun! Register on our forums to post and have added features! Membership levels include a FREE membership tier.

Avy in cotton wood kills 3

Just got wind that three people were killed in avy up cotton wood in star valley today............Was up willow creek today, and snow is crazy deep...never had any avys, or see any recent ones......but honestly lets stay off the dangerous places, there is a reason its at considerable..
 
Theres also a Cottonwood Canyon in Utah

Gets kind of confusing when people post like this:confused:
 
Dam - Dave, I am heading just South of that area in AM. Sorry to hear about this but snow has been unreal lately. My prayers to the families.............
 
sorry, but in my post i said it was in star valley.....sorry if it confused u. Bad thing about this avy is they were not hitting a hill they were just sitting in the bottom and it cut loose.
 
sorry, but in my post i said it was in star valley.....sorry if it confused u. Bad thing about this avy is they were not hitting a hill they were just sitting in the bottom and it cut loose.

Hey pxmk03, do you have anymore details on this slide/accident? The star valley tribune had very little helpful info. Anything more about their position and activity, slope angle, aspect, temp, etc. would be helpful to figure out how this happened. Then we can use it so it doesn't happen to us. Sounds like all in the party were caught and killed. Condolences.
 
Star Valley mourns

By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer Monday, January 14, 2008



[oas:casperstartribune.net/news/wyoming/top:Middle1]
Star Valley is mourning the deaths of three Afton-area men who died in a large avalanche near Cottonwood Lake in Lincoln County on Saturday, County Coroner Michael Richins said Sunday.

"They were well-known family men; all leave widows and children," he said.

"They went to the same church, they were all from the same community," Richins said.

The men -- Dr. Scott L. Bennett, Alan R. Jensen and Kim Steed -- were in their 40s or 50s and had about 20 children or more among them, he said.

Richins spent much of Saturday consoling the families, he said.

Citing members of the search and rescue team, Richins said the men were snowmobiling late Saturday morning or early afternoon in a branch canyon by Cottonwood Lake, which is about eight miles southeast of Afton.

Bennett, Jensen and Steed became stuck in a steep area in a bowl, and the search and rescue team came along to free them, Richins said.

The team returned to the same area later and saw the aftermath of the avalanche that buried them, he said.

The slide was about 700 feet long, 300 feet wide and 50 feet deep that uprooted trees, Richins said. "Essentially, it was a whole side of a mountain that came down."

Bennett, Jensen and Steed wore homing beacons enabling the search and rescue team to find them, but not save them, he said. "The sheer volume of that slide, it was too much."

In an avalanche, snow moves like a liquid and settles like cement when it stops, Richins said.

It traps people and they are unable to breathe, so they die of "compression asphyxia," he said.

Today, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office plans to issue a press release about the men and the avalanche, an unidentified dispatcher said Sunday.
 
Cotton Wood Avalanche

Been getting info on this slide and It is terrible. Sounds like one of them was trying to get out of the bowl and it broke. Mr. Jensen was only under two feet and his finger tips were exposed but no beacon, the first to arrive on the avy only heard it and when they seen it turned beacons to search and picked up the out two. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Steed were 15 feet below. All had childern and Mr. Bennet was a doctor with is own practice. Very sad, I am being told that he just dropped is life insurance and has four kids..... If I hear anything more I will post.
 
Premium Features



Back
Top