The wife of a skier who died in an avalanche in the Uinta Mountains last March has filed a lawsuit against Park City Powder Cats alleging the backcountry tour operator made several missteps during the expedition.
Ryan Barr, 46, and 10 other guests were led by two guides and two snowcat operators on a guided trip through the Uinta Mountains on March 9. As they traversed a steep wall to access untouched terrain for their final run, a slide was triggered. The avalanche — which ultimately measured 400 feet wide, 1,250 feet long and 4-9 feet deep, according to a Utah Avalanche Center report — swept up Barr and one other guest. The other skier, identified in the lawsuit as Mike McFarland, was found first and ultimately survived. Barr, a commercial real estate agent from San Diego, was buried face down 6 feet under the snow. He had no pulse and was unresponsive when rescuers found him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Caroline Barr claims in the lawsuit that rather than hike to the summit of M&M Bowl, which sits at an elevation of 10,587 feet, Park City Powder Cats guides led their clients into avalanche terrain. They asked the skiers to traverse under a cornice along a headwall with a 37-degree pitch that ended in a narrow gully.
“The guides selected the route without regard to avalanche conditions, snow conditions, the steepness of the slope, the lack of beta testing, and the terrain trap (gully) at the bottom,” states the lawsuit, which was jointly filed last month in the 3rd District Court by Salt Lake City firms Adams Davis and Gross & Rooney. “Gullies are a dangerous terrain trap that are to be avoided in the backcountry given the elevated risk of death due to burial.”
The dangers were never communicated to the guests, the lawsuit alleges. Rather the group was told the last run would be a “party run.”
In addition, the lawsuit alleges, guides allowed multiple skiers to enter into the slide path at the same time. The UAC recommends crossing single-file and waiting for others to reach safety before beginning a traverse.
Once the avalanche swept up the skiers, the lawsuit claims the other guests could do little to help find them because they were outfitted only with a beacon, not a radio or shovel, and were given no instructions on how to perform a rescue. On its website, Park City Powder Cats states it does not provide gear beyond a beacon, which emits a signal that can help rescuers find someone buried in the snow.
Avalanche danger was low to moderate in the western Uintas that day, the UAC reported. A day later, however, high winds had downgraded the area to a “considerable” avalanche risk.
A report issued by the UAC said the skiers were crossing single file. However, it also mentions a fourth skier entered the headwall area while the prior skier, who had crashed, was still on it. The lawsuit identifies that fourth skier as Barr.
The UAC issues an exploratory report after every avalanche death in Utah. The lawsuit alleges the UAC did not interview any of the clients for its report. UAC Director Mark Staples said he spoke to numerous people for the report. However, he emphasized that the report is mainly for educational and informational purposes and does not constitute a formal investigation.
In the days following Barr’s death, several media outlets, including The Salt Lake Tribune, reported on a Summit County Sheriff’s bulletin confirming a skier had been killed near upper Weber Canyon. Still, Caroline Barr said Park City Powder Cats waited three days to inform her of his death.
Barr’s family issued a statement through the Summit County Sheriff’s office on March 12.
“Ryan was loved by all and will be remembered for his big personality, kindness, and ability to light up a room,” it said. “He worked in commercial real estate and loved skiing, surfing and cooking. He lived life to the fullest and was taken too soon.”
Park City Powder Cats has operated a backcountry guiding service for 29 years on its 15,000-acre Thousand Peaks Ranch and the adjacent Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. It has not reported the death of any guests during that span. According to its website, the guiding service allows only advanced or expert skiers or splitboarders to go on its tours, which begin at $799 per person.
Park City Powder Cats Park City Powder Cats, a backcountry guiding service that operates in the Uinta Mountains, issued this statement to The Salt Lake Tribune on April 13, 2023, after one of its guests was killed in an avalanche on March 9, 2023.
A statement released by Park City Powder Cats in April said, “It is impossible to put into words the sorrow we feel and the grief that is shared by the entirety of our Powder Cat family.
“In our 29 years of operation, this is the first tragedy we have experienced of this magnitude. We consider every one of our guests’ [sic] to be family and will continue to put our primary focus on the safety & well being of our guests and staff.”
The only other skier known to have died in an avalanche in the Uinta Mountains was experienced avalanche worker Brian Roust. The 2002 death of Roust, 29, and his dog in a slide on Windy Ridge, which is also in upper Weber Canyon, prompted the UAC to begin issuing avalanche forecasts for that mountain range.
Lawyers for Caroline Barr did not return several phone calls. Park City Powder Cats did not respond to a request for comment and it is unclear who will represent the guiding service in court.
