As a deadly avalanche caught eight skiers, killing four, in Mill Creek Canyon on Saturday, a group of snowmobilers had their own close call with an avalanche in the Uinta Mountains.
When Miles Penrose felt the avalanche begin, he thought the mountain shaking was actually an “earthquake.” He, two of his brothers and some friends were snowmobiling in an area Penrose knew well, he wrote on Instagram and Facebook.
“As I turned and looked up, I could see the snow wave coming,” he wrote. “My brother’s back was turned and I screamed ‘avalanche’ as loud as I could.”
One person in the group managed to catch it all on video. The terrifying footage shows a wall of snow coming directly toward the person filming. Some of the people in Penrose’s group, including one of his brothers, were buried or partially buried.
“There is no worse feeling than having your little brother buried,” wrote Penrose, who was able to dig his brother out of the deep snow. Two other people in the group were able to “outrun” the avalanche. The post doesn’t say that anyone was injured.
In his Sunday avalanche report, Drew Hardesty with the Utah Avalanche Center says “areas of high danger exist in steep upper elevation terrain,” with the highest danger on “north through southeast facing slopes.”
Hardesty also adds: “If you’re headed out of bounds at a ski area, you may be stepping into high avalanche danger.”
Warning: Video contains language that may be offensive to some viewers.