Avalanche: Pink Pine

The Dave Anderson / Life Flight Helicopter Tragedy During the late afternoon of Sunday, January 11 we had the first serious avalanche accident of the storm cycle. Experienced backcountry skiers on the sub-ridge between White Pine and Red Pine Canyons (thus called Pink Pine) in Little Cottonwood were taking their last run down a steep west facing slope. The second skier, Dave Anderson, triggered a slide only about a foot deep and 50 feet wide, and it picked up speed very quickly on the slippery underlying bed surface. He sustained serious leg injuries as the slide carried him through trees, but was not buried in the debris. After a long, arduous rescue, friends and rescue workers were able to get him down to the road about 6 hours after the accident took place. Tragedy struck when the rescue helicopter crashed as they tried to fly down canyon in a violent blizzard. All four people on the helicopter were killed—the avalanche victim, the pilot, a paramedic and a nurse. It was a major tragedy that left Salt Lake City reeling. The skier, Dave Anderson, was a good friend to all of us at the Avalanche Forecast Center and was a central and much-loved member of the local skiing and climbing community. He is missed by all of us.

From the Utah Avalanche Center Annual Report 1997-1998