An interesting article on the effects of explosive-residue compounds from dropping bombs for control work.
Explosive-Reside Compounds Resulting From Snow Avalanche Control in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah
It was interesting to see that some of this data came from the Wasatch PowderBirds, although anything that was credited to them was listed as “unpub. data, 1999.” It’s almost like they didn’t want the public to know about it. Huh.
Some interesting highlights:
For example, the three ski areas of Alta, Snowbird, and Brighton, plus the Utah Department of Transportation, may use as many as 11,200 hand charges per year (Wasatch Powderbird Guides, unpub. data, 1999) for snow avalanche control in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons (fig. 3). If each charge is assumed to weigh 2 pounds, this equates to about 22,400 pounds of explosive hand charges per year. In addition, 2,240 to 3,160 Avalauncher rounds and 626 to 958 military artillery rounds (explosive mass not specified) are used each year by the three ski areas and the Utah Department of Transportation for snow avalanche control in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons (Wasatch Powderbird Guides, unpub. data, 1999). The other ski area in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Brighton, uses about 2,000 pounds of explosives per year for snow avalanche control (Michele Weidner, Cirrus Ecological Solutions consultant, written commun., 2001).
As part of their effort to calm public hatred for their noisy operation, the Wasatch Powderbird Guides are suppose to post information about where they will be operating the next day on their blog. The idea is that people can then plan accordingly and go to areas where they are not flying, both to avoid the noise and the inevitable backcountry conflict that arises when they land with 200′ of you in the middle of the mountains.
Much to our dismay, on Saturday, Jan 3rd, we were out touring in the Mt. Aire area when suddenly the WPG comes roaring into the drainage and lands on a peak that was not on their daily list of areas where they said they would be operating. From a touring standpoint, this is incredibly annoying as we had spent hours getting there. In the end, it turns out that the WPG was on a turf-marking mission where they land, send out a junior guide to rip a few branches off of trees, tie survey tape litter to them, plant them in the snow, then fly off. As soon as the next storm comes, the litter is buried and they repeat the process.
Letters of complaint were sent to both the WPG and the Forest Service, although they never acknowledged them, even to offer a simple apology. Typical WPG behavior.
As a third-hand rumor has it, during a recent clear spell after a week of high avalanche danger, WPG underling guide Spencer Wheatly tried to talk veteran carpet-bomber Mike “Ole” Olson from going on search and destroy backcountry bombing mission.
Bombing the backcountry during or immediately after periods of high avalanche danger accomplishes next to nothing. If the slope slides, WPG is not going to ski the remaining tattered bed surface. If the slope doesn’t slide, they still probably won’t ski it as there is known danger. More often than not, WPG goes on bombing sprees just to get their rocks off by creating big avalanches that tear out trees and keep the snowpack thin and dangerous. Not only that, two days later the snowpack’s stability had greatly increased, so as always, patience is a virtue.
If the rumor is true, GOOD JOB SPENCER! You get the Golden Snowflake award for showing some restraint and trying to talk some sense into the Mad Bombers.
In an effort to squeak through another ten years of hellish heliskiing in the Wasatch, the Forest Service has allowed for a very short comment period on their Scoping Document.
DON’T DELAY! Write them today and let them you how you feel about having the WPG bomb the Wasatch to bits until 2020!
Here are some writing notes from Bill Lockhart. Thanks Bill!
Through Dec. 19, written comment may be submitted to comments-intermtn-wasatch-cache-saltlake@fs.fed.us, or on paper (from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday) to Acting District Ranger Melissa Hearst, Salt Lake Ranger District, 6944 S. 3000 East, Salt Lake, UT 84121. The fax number is 801-733-2684
WPG President Rusty Dassing should just learn to keep his mouth shut, but he can’t seem to help himself. In an article published today (Dec 3, 2008) in the Salt Lake Tribune, Rusty issued his own personal “Mission Accomplished!” statement in regards to the PENDING Forest Service Scoping review:
“The community as a whole welcomes this opportunity. They should be happy to have one of the great heli-skiing companies and the great skiing opportunities in the country right here,”
WPG is one of the great heli-skiing companies in the country?
If that isn’t enough to make you want to write a letter of complaint, he followed it up with:
“there is a lot more controversy than actual conflict”
That can be easily fixed. 
In one of the greater ironies of the Wasatch Heli Wars, the Forest Service prohibits jeeps, dirt bikes and ATV’s from tearing up the Wasatch Mountains, but for some reason allows helicopters. Fortunately a Heli-Free Wasatch supporter was able to fix the trailhead sign:
The link below takes you to a PDF document which was compiled by the Wasatch-Cache National Forest as a result of the Jan 2005 Wasatch Powderbird Guides bombing campaign which senselessly devastated large tracts of trees in the central Wasatch Mountains. With known avalanche instability, the Powderbird Guides went on a bombing joyride which triggered massive avalanches in the backcountry, tearing out trees and weakening the snowpack in the process.
Wasatch Powder Bird Guides – Explosives Use for Slope Stability Testing – Program Review, August 2005
After a formal Freedom of Information Act request (and then the expected follow-up note weeks later to ask if/when the the Forest Service was actually going to send it) I’ve finally received the January and February 2008 daily Wasatch Powderbird Guides report.
I’ve always thought it seemed like there were a lot of helicopters flying around at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon, but never imagined the WPG were making as many flights as they do. With only twelve days of operation in January, they managed to pump out a staggering 511 flights, for an average of 42.6 flights per day. Bear in mind a “flight” is there and back, which means when they were flying, it was a virtual war-zone of flying choppers.
Shocking, eh? But then there was February.
In an ear-shattering, peace disrupting effort, the Wasatch Powderbirds cranked out 720 flights in just 14 days during February! That’s an average of over 51 flights per day. No wonder it seems like the helicopters are in your face all the time – they are.
During Jan/Feb spree, they managed to drop 41 bombs of which there is no record of the damage they caused to flora and fauna.
In the combined 26 days of operation, they saw 328 “ski or snowshoe users” which comes out to 12.6 per day, or only one backcountry user for every 3-4 flights they took. They must not be looking very hard.
The hard-to-read pdf document can be found here.
As subtle as an A-Star landing within five-feet of your head on a clear, calm day, a secret stash of Heli-Free Wasatch stickers has been discovered and are yours for the bargain donation of only $5.00 for two of them – one for you and one for the neighbor’s Hummer.
At 10″ x 3″, these leave no doubt as to your feelings towards heliskiing in the Wasatch Mountains. As with the smaller stickers, these include postage, a blank piece of paper with “Thanks!” handwritten on it and eternal good karma.
Here is a quote from the Wasatch Powderbird Guides website that makes you wonder what kind of drugs these guys are on:
Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the United States Forest Service, while heli skiing with WPG, you will be recreating on your national forest with assurance that these activities cause no harm to the environment and minimize the disturbance of others.
If this isn’t harming the environment, I don’t know what is:
Here’s the WPG version of “minimizing disturbance of others” – landing not only one, but two helicopters full of guides and clients directly on top of a touring party in broad daylight within inches of the ski area boundary.
