Emergency dispatchers get a new view of avalanche rescues


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SALT LAKE CITY — The ski and snowboard season kicks into gear this weekend with more resort openings and fresh powder on the way.

That also means avalanche season is here.

To train for a flurry of calls that will come this winter, emergency dispatchers from Salt Lake County took a tram ride to the top of Hidden Peak at Snowbird to get a new perspective that should make a difference in emergencies. They got a chance to see the coordination it takes with a helicopter, multiple rescue teams and avalanche dogs to save a person who has been trapped or injured in an avalanche.

"This is extremely important," said Gigi Smith, a police operations manager with Valley Emergency Communications Center.

In fact, the 30 dispatchers from VECC, Unified Police Department and Utah Transit Authority have never trained this way before.

"It gets us that visual that we need," said Smith.

They answer emergency calls in the valley and do not get to see the action and coordination among as many as 11 agencies that it takes to rescue a person trapped or hurt in an avalanche.

"When we work in the dispatch center, a lot of the time we're having to try to visualize and picture exactly what's happening," Smith said. "When we're up here now, we can actually see terrain, we can understand it a little bit better."

There are no addresses or street signs out in the backcountry, where skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers may trigger an avalanche. A backcountry rescue is very different from an urban rescue. The terrain is vast, but the teams on the mountain know the terrain.

"Lives can be saved," said Sgt. Travis Skinner, a Unified police canyon patrol supervisor, but only when they communicate effectively and quickly.


They're putting names to faces and seeing the resources that they're calling for help, and are seeing how professional these groups are and how well they work together.

–Sgt. Travis Skinner, UPD


"We're taking them out of the classroom setting," said Skinner. "They're putting names to faces and seeing the resources that they're calling for help, and are seeing how professional these groups are and how well they work together."

In an average year, four people die in avalanches in Utah's mountains. People report 150 human-triggered slides to the Utah Avalanche Center annually, but they estimate that's only half the true number.

The avalanche risk has already arrived this early season.

"We had about 11 large avalanches last weekend," said Brett Kobernik, an avalanche forecaster with the U.S. Forest Service. "With the coming storm, with weak layers out there, right now we are expecting avalanche danger to spike again this weekend."

According to Unified police, the rescuers and the dogs training at Snowbird Friday are among the best in the world. They've cut response times in half over the last decade because they keep honing their skills.

"We've got to set the bar really high always," Skinner said. "I think we do that."

"If there's an accident out there, we want to get the organized rescue personnel out there quickly as possible," said Kobernik. "So, this kind of training is key."

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Jed Boal

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