most memorable avy

[AltaPowderDaze]

what's your most memorable avalanche? either from a video, in person or second hand. everybody has a story about atleast one. lets hear it.

the most awe inspiring one i've seen on film is from an old movie (levine) and it was huge. first time i saw it my heart started beating heavily and my organs felt like they relocated to my throat (just like a nasty huck mid air, before you know if you're going to stick it). the same avy is in the extras on rage's junkshow diaries.

[Summit]

The one with a dead body up close and personal. This is not a happy thread WTF?

[ak_powder_monkey]

the one that I wasn't in, either watching the trollers at aly throwing bombs, or watching the patrol at alp knocking down avy after avy from the lurch (wich we subsiquently skied and set off another)

[G]

I posted about this before here: A patrol triggered inbounds ripper. Nearly a mile wide, six foot crown, and a few miles long. Moved so fast in some places I couldn't keep up while watching from below (and off to the side!)

Here's the first three minutes (http://www.eengoedidee.nl/parsefiles/?type=skiing&filename=avy1.mpg)



And Here's the whole story:
Video: One Big, Gigantic, #%^&ing Huge, Massive AVALANCHE (http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4778)

[Telepath]

The one I was dug out from. Closely followed by those I've dug out people from. Luckily for me I tend to think the most about the times when people came out alive.

Time to check transceiver batteries, look for stress marks on probe and shovel, restock the first aid kit and go do some receiver practice. And repeat the mantra "don't get caught"!

Having way more experience with digging in avalanches than I'd prefer I've got one thing that I think about a lot: people seem to think that either you make it out alive and can ski the next day or you die. A lot of those rescued alive are still bend in the wrong places and stuff. Even riding on top of something without burial can still mean that you wind up all twisted and broken. Don't get caught.

[H-man]

Not sure what year it was, but I remember seeing pics from the slide on No Name Peak at JH that wiped out the entire face right before the regional powder eights were held. That was large. I think the fracture line shows up in the TGR vid from that year.

I was in a very small one in St. Anton in 1990. All I remember is the weight of the snow piling up on my back and trying to bend me over in a ball. I was able to point my sticks and ride it out on the bottom of the slide. I will NEVER forget that force and can only imagine what it is like in a big slide. Lesson learned.

[Trackhead]

When I was young and dumber, attempting a first ascent of an ice route in Hyalite Canyon, MT. Had been snowing for a couple days, we were three pitches up. I had lead up behind a steep pitch with a protected belay behind a curtain of ice. My two partners were below me. Then the thunderous roar and an avy ripping overhead for what seemed like an eternity. I was safe behind the curtain.

My friend got picked up and slammed into my other partner, his crampons fully penetrating the others arm. After it cleared, they were not buried because they were on a very steep slope, tied into the rope. Then about three minutes later, another one came, then three more, all at equal intervals but slightly lower intensity.

After the fifth we rapped the route. I came back two months later and finished it on a safer day. Needless to say, it's called the 'Avalanche climb'.

Route 'C' below was the scene of the crime. Looks like an unlikely place for a slid.
http://www.montanaice.com/images/res_fam_men_area.jpg

[cololi]

Any avalanche that you learn something from is memorable. My most memorable was a small sluff on an old mining dump that completely buried the other patroller I was with. The slide was about 15 feet wide, 6 inches deep, and travelled about 80 vertical feet and a 38 degree slope. We were doing ski cuts, and it was our third cut on the dump that triggered it. The guy was a volunteer who had bright pink straps on his backpack that everyone made fun of. I saw one of the straps sticking out of the snow and had him out in under a minute.

Lessons learned: take no slope for granted and look for clues on the surface.

[lemon boy]

I think the lesson from that one is that if everyone makes fun of your gay pink backpack straps, don't cut them off.

[Telenater]

I don't know when it was (aside from sometime before mid-May, but it was on the NE arm of Lassen and it was powerful. I believe that it had probably been at least a week since it dropped, but big trees were snapped off 6-10 feet above the snow level so there could have been more time elapsed. The crown was still very clearly defined (which would argue against it's having been too long since it slid). The debris field was long and that area obviously handn't had an avy of that magnitude in a long time.

[Mountain Freak]

I was climbing Mt. Bierstadt in January when we reached a steep slope. All of the sudden I felt the slope move and heard a "Whoomp". I jumped off to the left on my ice ax and watched the slope slide down. That was a little unnerving.

[AltaPowderDaze]

Originally posted by Summit
The one with a dead body up close and personal. This is not a happy thread WTF?

i did not intend it to be a happy thread. it's more of an awareness thing. a lot of people get out early season and forget about slides since they haven't seen any yet. i've been in a few small ones with light consequences and one large that would have been deadly, but i have learned from them.

this one almost got me. it was the NE face of Mt. Tuscarora and it slide about every direction possible. with nothing but rocks and cliffs below, riding it out was not a viable option.
http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/tuscaroraslide.jpg


Observer Photos (http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/obphotos/observer.html)


this photo shows the whole slope. i was near the top. luckily i made it to the small trees while cutting the slope. i was suspect of the slope, but was in the process of skiing to my first safe zone when it broke.

[Eldo]

Delirium Dive, at Sunshine Village, Banff. Early morning avy control set off massive slides that basically wiped out the entire thing. March 2003.

Same winter as the two big killer avalanches at Selkirk Mountain Experience and in Rogers Pass.

http://www3.telus.net/public/geraldvp/TGR_PIX/avydive.jpg

[Summit]

Originally posted by AltaPowderDaze
i did not intend it to be a happy thread. it's more of an awareness thing. a lot of people get out early season and forget about slides since they haven't seen any yet.

Maybe I'll whip out a fucking awareness thread in a month or two...

[Ak_pride]

Hatcher Pass out of Palmer, Ak Febuary 2002. Scared the shit out of my buddy and I.

The winter started off pretty good in early october with 2-3' new in a couple days, but then soon after the rain level shot back up to 6000' well above all the peaks. We got 2" of rain in town so who knows how much up high, this left the snow as SHIT for a long time, with no new snow untill sometime in january.

We took a 3 day avalanche workshop up in a visitor center closed for the winter right after this 6-8'" of new snow. After studying layers and looking at slides and listening to lectures and studying the snow some more, It was pretty obvious that we had some extreme avalanche conditions.

After the class we were a little freaked about doing anything other than building kickers in safe spots well out of runout zones on our weekend outings from school. Then in febuary our winter of frustration continued with no snow and then finnaly pounding rain in town, but then to our delight we realized it was finnaly fucking snow up high, about 3-5 feet in 2 or 3 days. So finnaly there was some powder. Sadly during the storm a couple snowboarders decided to try the popular hatch peak run. and the only one wearing a beacon out of the group was buried in an avalanche and killed.

Oddly enough we decdied to go up the next day to one of our kicker spots to test out the new powder. We were amazed and delighted at the amount of new snow when we pulled into the parking lot. It was still snowing lightly so we couldn't really see the sorounding peaks very well.

So we proceeded up the exact trail that we did to get to the avalanche class, also a well used snowmachine trail for the winter caretakers. It is in the center of a valley with steep slopes about a quarter mile away on either side. We were booting through a foot of new snow on top of the packed trail. I offered to give my friend a rest and break trail. So I stepped around him and off the trail sinking up to my chest in new snow. And all of a sudden WHOOOMPFF the snow under me settles. But it doesn't stop there, I can hear it go in stages down a gully, back up and across flats for nearly a quarter mile and then right up the 2000' peaks. I could tell immediately it was going to slide and then saw the fractures start to form. I wasn't too concerned at this point, I thought it was kind of intresting if anything. But then the fracture line just kept going, and going down this ridge. It went through areas that had obviously slid continiously throughout the storm where the fracture looked to be mere inches, but then it dipped down into gullys and the fracture jumped up to 3-4 feet in depth. It rumbled and came down to the flats a large cloud of snow billowing towards us, my friend worriedly saying, were ok, were ok, were o.....OH FUCK and take off running. I was still stuck waist deep in the snow while this whole ordeal unfolded and to my utter dismay could not move, I thought my life was over, fuck i should have spent that $300 on a beacon i thought to myself. But then shortly before working my way free i realized we were perfectly fine, the snow went down into the gully between us and the mountains and stopped, about 100 feet away. The powder and wind blast giving us a nice breeze. I will never forget seeing that snow racing towards me like that.

So we decided we would let the mountains be for the day and headed back to the car. On the way down the skys cleared and the sun actually came out and we could see our slide, it was more than a mile wide with fractures stretching from the parking lot up to the mine buildings. On the way down we also saw the cross country ski team from our high school starting up the trail we were on, up here an hour from town due to no snow in the valley still. And we rambled our story off still a little shaken up and pointed the slide out to a couple of our friends.

Several weeks later after things had settled out we were headed up the same trail and happened to see our avalanche instructor from january in almost the exact spot we set off the slide. He told us "oh good! what a great first hand experience! , you guys were in the right spot!"

[AltaPowderDaze]

:eek:
ak pride,
how long before you got a change of pants? slides coming from above worry me more than getting out on a hard slab. if there are any pics or write ups from the avy sites, please post.

[Skier10322]

http://www.newschoolers.com/PHP/Pictures/Uploaded/1570mhavylnchebs.jpg

I was filming not skiing in it, sorry bout the cheesy text on the photo, i didnt put it there.

[Ak_pride]

No real avy sites for that part of alaska, but I might have some pictures of the mountains somewhere, If i find them I'll post them.

[Zeedashbo]

the one where i almost died....

[Ripzalot]

awesome thread. :eek:

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergalleries/albums/userpics/10853/IMG_3031.JPG

[Ireallyliketoski]

I was on a solo climb/ski of the North Face of La Plata mountain in June, about 1'+ of snow had fallen a day or so before. The left most couloir had already slid so I climbed up that one. From the summit I took the most direct couloir down, which hadn't slid yet, and ski cut across the entrance to trigger the direct action slide. I cut hard left towards a rocky outcropping, and watched the snow slide like a snake down the chute for 2,000 feet. It left behind such a smooth, carvable surface, it was pure bliss. Definitely the stupidest thing I've ever done.

[dbp]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by H-man
Not sure what year it was, but I remember seeing pics from the slide on No Name Peak at JH that wiped out the entire face right before the regional powder eights were held. That was large. I think the fracture line shows up in the TGR vid from that year.

12 ft crown. Scanned out of a coffee table book "Jackson Hole on a Grand Scale"

[Schmear]

For anyone who's skied No Name peak, that ^^ is a frightening sight.

[AltaPowderDaze]

which video was from that year? that is f-ing huge. if anyone has video of that, they could make some cash. i'm assuming that it was a controlled avy, atleast it was set off by explosive. anyone have info or a news write-up on it?

[dbp]

Originally posted by AltaPowderDaze
which video was from that year? that is f-ing huge. if anyone has video of that, they could make some cash. i'm assuming that it was a controlled avy, atleast it was set off by explosive. anyone have info or a news write-up on it?

Caption from the book says "natural slide" and 1999. That is all I know.

Yeah, that is pretty farkin scary.

[Theodore]

I was watching a show about women climbers on K2 and they followed Aracelli Segarra on the expedition. I think it was on the Nat. Geog. channel. Anywho, they have some footage of a HUGE avy. The scale of the whole thing blew my mind.

[AltaPowderDaze]

keep em in mind.

[JR]

I got to stand part way down the face on a ridge that runs off Mt Roberts at Red Mountain in the early 80's when they blasted the cornice and it roared past us on two sides full boar. The air and powder blast were unbelievable. It gave me a lot of respect for the power and speed of an avalanche. It was like having a hellish freight train pass you on both sides. Turned me into a really careful chickenshit, but I'm still alive...........

Getting buried as test carcass for a dog search practice when I was 14 also had a lasting effect on me.

[BFD]

have some time on my hands so here goes. First let me say I have been in a few avalanches and my first thoughts each time was how stupid am I nothing cool about it. Climbing west face of deborah in Alaska Range in May. Dug a snow cave below the bergshrund at what seemed to be a safe distance from the face. Anyway that night it started dumping and the face started shedding into the bergshrund and the seracs at the bottom of the face. Anyway about four in the morning I hear the woompf and came out of my sleeping bag punching for the roof of the cave at the same time as the cave collapsed around us. I was standing with my arms up above my head about1.5 ft from daylight my partner was pinned in his bag directly below me. Had to piss wicked and all he kept saying was don't piss anyway he was stuck in his bag so he didn't have much say in that matter. Luckily his ice ax was next to him. He was able to get it to me and I was able to poke a hole. Than I realized we were going to make it. In order to get out I had to dig the snow in and onto my partner. As soon as I got out of the cave I wished I was back inside. Was in a blizzard with only my socks on my feet. Luckily I sleep with gloves next to my chest so I had some gloves to put on to begin digging my partner out by hand. A volkswagon size piece of serac was sitting almost on top of our cave. Afterwhile he was able to get out of his sleeping bag and began to find things like our shovels and than we began digging for the rest of our stuff. Now I always make sure my shovel and iceax is within reach when sleeping in the snow cave. As a prologue we moved a little and dug another cave spent another night waiting on the weather than decided to start climbing. So we start up on the face wind around a couple of seracs and I get above them onto the face. I look over and the serac I just passed has a crack behind it. I yell for him to run and he does and the thing rolls on by missing him. We than decided enough was enough and got out of there. Lesson learned was camp far away from collection zones at the base of big faces. And in areas of greater snowfall the face doesn't have to be as big. On Saint Elias we cached skies at bergshrund than crossed and climbed about 100ft vertical to ridge. On return after huge snowfall we couldn't even recognize the place one wand was left and it was sticking out of a place we couldn't remember putting it.

[MOHSHSIHd]

was skiing loveland pass mid-may last year, really warm day...maybe 2pm...

we were staying away from anything that would slide cuase we knew something was bound to go that day....


we do a run and ride up in a truck bed with two snowboarders....we got to talking about what runs we were all doing and the two boarders look over to the south side and point to a nice looking strech about 35 degrees or so on a western facing aspect.....gettin beat by bluebird sun all day....

i say "Hey guys, i wouldnt ride that if i were you, it will probably slide"

and they look at eachother, laugh, and jump out of the truck and head towards the line theyt pointed out...


at the bottom of the next run we look up and see the two guys riding in what was probably the WORST spot to be.....a second later the second rider starts a small wet slide and straighlines out of it.....barely made it out...

was only about 15 feet wide and 4-6 inches deep, ran about 50-70 feet...

they thought it was funny...but a wet spring slide that size can easily kill you...

[hucksquaw]

the one that took the life of two buddies of mine. they dropped in behind KT at squaw to get home in the alpine valley, theyd done it before but theres no avy control back there. i was on the mountain and heard they were missing when i got into the race team locker room at the end of the day. the next day they found the slide. that day we lost two badass skiers, potential u.s. ski team hopefulls, and more importantly two awesome guys.

R.I.P. Brendan and Brian. hope the skiings sick where you are!

[homerjay]

http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Avalanche/Default.aspx?tabid=42

If you can spare some time, there's some good reports of avalanche accidents here. Lessons learned, all of them.