TR: When everything turns to shit...

[postman22]

It's been about 12 hours since I wrote all this stuff down. It helped me calm my nerves. I wrote this via an email and sent it to myself. After reading through it again, I sent it off to Richard and Lee who were involved in this incident with me. I had a look in the morning again, and have made a few tweaks since then. All in all, I still feel what I wrote isn't exaggerated and is a good account of what happened. If this story touches you in any way be it good or bad and you want to share it, by all means go ahead. Send it to your friends and family via Facebook, email, or any way you see fit. Below is an account of what happened on Fissile about 10k away from Whistler Blackcomb on Saturday, April 10th.

It must be either 4 or 5 years ago that Athan, Toby and I first attempted Fissile. To be exact, we attempted Summit Chute. It was a rather warm day, and my biggest tour to date. Anyways long story short, I caught an edge halfway down Summit Chute, and tumbled a few thousand feet. It was pretty amazing that all my limbs were attached and besides a slight concussion and third degree burns that I was alright. I remember hiking out on one ski through Singing Pass. It took about 4 hours to get out of there. That 15k was probably the toughest thing physically, that I have ever experienced.

I told myself that I had no interest in ever skiing that line again. Fast forward a few years and I was still for the most part saying that. After skiing some pretty steep lines this year and being in some of the best shape of my life, I figured it would be worth it to at least go up to the summit of Fissile and have a look. Lee and Richard were keen on the idea as well.

As the weekend approached, I had a quick read through the thread I posted on April 26, 2006 (so yeah that crash must of happened 4 years ago). My write up didn't really shake me up, as that is what I had been personally been through. What shook me up, was what my two partners Toby and Athan had written up.

Toby says "What I saw next was horrifying. Phil sliding head 1st out the bottom at mach one in what I soon realized was an ice chute for sluff. Im not particularly religious, but I looked down at the good reverend doctor on my rented G3's and we said a prayer for Phil."

Athan says "I watched as phil came down to the steepest, gripping section right where the huge troughs started. It looked like he crossed a tip or something. I couldn't quite tell as I was so far away. He rolled once. I held my breath and said, "oh no." I knew if he didn't stop after that first roll he was going to the bottom. He started tumbling/tomahaking. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit" I said. It's hard watching one of your buddies in immense danger and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. He immediately was funneled into the biggest avy/slide/runnel trough of death. I knew the thing was pure ice. I can't imagine the pain. He kept picking up more and more speed. He slid on his ass for a while, then head first on his back, all while rolling, spining, tumbling, limbs flailing, with a raging river of slough all around him. He roared past me so fast I had to snap my neck to keep up with his speed. He was going about as fast as if I were making super G turns down the face. He came to a stop maybe 400 feet below me." He continues to say
"He was motionless, but sitting up. I yelled at him, nothing. A few more times. Finally his hand went up. I collected my things and yelled up to powder11 to collect his gear. I went down to phil and said, "phil are you alright, I need to know if you are ok or not?" It was obvious his bell was a little rung as he replied, "Do you know where my skis are?" "I don't care about your skis bro, let me know your ok." He checked everything and said he was pretty numb and exhausted from the adreniline. He was still thinking though as he said, "I'm getting to a safe zone." He walked down to the next safe zone. The slog out must've been brutal. I was exhausted and he was doing it on one ski."

If you want to read more on this please read
[ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52246"]Fissile, Summit Chute TR, worst crash of my life - Teton Gravity Research Forums[/ame]

These comments were a bit intense as I hadn't really thought about the stress that I had caused on my buddies. These thoughts were circling through my head all week, but we still made a decision to go for it on Saturday. Lee had been up there for a few days and had said the avalanche conditions were moderate, which made me feel much better about going.

[postman22]

We got to the Roundhouse at around 9am and to our delight the Peak Chair had already opened. We made rapid progress and were skiing down to Cowboy by 10am. We got faceshots down Cowboy which I can never ever remember happening. Pretty awesome. We broke trail and decided to skin up through Whirlwind Peak. The wind had been hollowing the entire day. As we got to Whirlwind the wind died, and we felt the heat of the sun. It felt like summer. At around 12ish we had made it to the summit.


Richard stoked after just getting faceshots. Cowboy Ridge in the background


Lee breaking trail on Whirlwind Peak


More trail breaking


Richard in the front and Lee in the background. Sir Davidson looking awfully pretty

Our first intention was to ski Fissile like a Missile, then skin back up to Overlord Glacier, and then go hit Summit Chute. We were all keen on having a warm up run before Summit Chute. Fissile like a Missile is one of the more aesthetic lines I have ever seen. I can't remember seeing it when I was there 4 years ago. Lee had said it was beautiful and he was right. However, the only problem was that there was a 20 foot cornice on top. After about an hour of seeing if we could get in, and clawing at the cornice we decided that it wouldn't be safe to drop in. It's a no fall chute and dropping a 20 footer and having to stick it, wasn't in any of our risk thresholds.


On the ridge towards Fissile Like A Missile


Standing on top of our intended first run


Attempting to dig at the cornice


She'll have to wait for another time, photo courtesy of Lee Lau

We continued to the peak of Fissile. We discussed skiing the North East face which is probably the crown jewel of Fissile. It's probably a 600 meter shot over major exposure. We dug a pit. The snow was pretty sugary, however we didn't really see any results. However, due to the amount of snow Whistler had seen in the last week and the windloading that we had witnessed while skinning, none of us wanted to ski a huge face with lots of exposure. We continued to the Summit. From the Summit there are plenty of options. The most obvious is Summit Chute. The chute below Summit Chute is called Saddle Chute. Then you go to the NorthWest face and then on to Banana Chute. Again, due to wind loading we decided that we would not be able to manage our sluff in Summit Chute as all the sluff only has one place to go. Oh well, I thought, I'll get it some other time, maybe in another 4 years.

[postman22]

Summit Shot of Fissile with Lee and Richard

We decided on skiing Saddle Chute. I have to say it was probably the most epic run of my life so far. Saddle Chute is comprised of probably around 6-10 spines. On most years it is a chute. On a big snow year, like we have seen in 2010, the chute has turned into a ravine where you cannot ski because you will get hit by your sluff. There is a huge gully in the middle where all the sluff funnels. In order to ski the chute, however, you have to cross the funnel on several occasions which means managing your sluff. I dropped in first. It was incredible. Face shot after face shot, and super steep skiing. I got to about the 6th Spine. I had crossed the funnel several times and my confidence was probably a bit too high. I figured it could made it across the sluff pile without waiting for it to clear. Wrong!!. I got hit hard by the sluff and felt like I was in a washing machine. One of my skis ejected. Great, 4 years almost to the day of falling down Summit Chute and once again I only have one ski. I made a quick attempt to find it, but the sluff pile was long and big, and really there was no point. I was still ecstatic about the run and figured if I had hiked out of singing pass when I was injured on 1 ski, well then I could do it again.


The ski down to Saddle Chute, photo courtesy of Lee Lau


Spines all around. She's a beaut

Vimeo of me tentatively skiing towards Saddle Chute, in an obvious no fall zone
[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/10873592"]Phil on the no-fall zone above Summit and Saddle Chute - Fissile on Vimeo[/ame]

Vimeo of me entering Saddle Chute
[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/10873412"]Phil entering Saddle Chute - Fissile on Vimeo[/ame]


Richard on the run of his life in Saddle Chute, photo courtesy of Lee Lau

I skied on one ski to safe zone and waited for Richard and Lee. Both made it down safely. We were all really stoked on the run. From here you have two options. 1 is you go to another ridge that drops you into the Russet Side of things. I've skied it several times and would have skied it for sure, had I had two skis. Lee was thinking the same thing and Richard and him made it over to the ridge. I kept skiing down the main bowl to Overlord Glacier.

Richard skiing the main bowl of Fissile
[ame="http://www.vimeo.com/10873323"]Rich on the bottom half of the NW face of Fissile on Vimeo[/ame]

After making it almost the entire way down, I saw a ski popping out of the snow. I thought I was dreaming. Sure enough I get down, and it's the ski I had lost up high. The bottom of the NW bowl is probably 400 m from where I had ejected. Waist deep powder and I have ski brakes, and the ski managed to go down 400 meters!! I couldn't believe it. I was going to be skiing out on two skis, and all I was thinking was holy shit we are going to get to do another run. I quickly put on my skis and traversed over the moraine into the Russet Lake Drainage. I figured my luck had changed and Karma was finally on my side. I was hooting and hollering the whole way with the biggest shit grin on my face.

Right as I crested the moraine, everything went to shit. And I mean everything. I don't think I have ever gone from such a high to such a low in an instant. Immediately, after getting over the moraine and having a view of the run Richard and Lee were to ski all I heard was thunder and all I saw was a 30 foot high cloud of smoke. "Holy Shit" I said, (it was probably more like holy f**ck), avalanche. It kept coming too. I swear the damn thing must have lasted for 30-40 seconds. It was deafening. If anyone has ever seen the avalanche footage that Ski Movie 1 or 2 has of the valley in Chamonix, picture that but on a smaller scale. To me, it looked just as big. After the longest 30 seconds of my life, the snow settled. I, immediately begin screaming at the top of my lungs for Richard and Lee. Nothing. Dead silence everywhere. F**ck was all I could think. Two of buddies had probably just died. As the cloud of dust cleared I saw one ski sticking up below a 50 foot cliff. I, immediately turned my beacon to receive mode, and put my skis in walk mode. Unfortunately I was going to have to put on my skins too as the ski was probably a few hundred feet above me and a few hundred metres away in distance. I had the worst feeling that both Richard and Lee were buried and I was going to pull out one alive and one dead. The problem from my viewpoint was that I was at the top of the moraine. It dipped down probably 100 feet and then crested again. So where the slide had gone, I could only see the left hand side of the debris. I couldn't see the right hand side. The debris pile was pretty big too. From the 50 foot cliff, it was probably a 50m wide and probably 200m long. Richard and Lee had been caught in probably a 200-300 m slide from the very top. All this thinking probably lasted around 40 seconds. It's amazing how some of the longest moments in your life can occur in such a relatively short amount of time.


Overview of Fissile, my route, and Richard and Lee's Route

The reason why I had a bad feeling was for the following reason. My friend Brad and I had saved someone from a burial a few years back while skiing Baker. We were able to speak to his buddy who knew within about 30 feet where he was. It wasn't hard to locate him, and besides the fact that he was buried 2m under the snow, it wasn't too hectic. My problem was that I had no visual of where my friends where, except for seeing one ski. The avalanche was massive. My strategy at the time was again to go hike to that ski and then do zig zags and hopefully uncover someone with my beacon. All this I knew would take longer than 15 minutes (most people die within 15 minutes of being buried). Again, all these thoughts were taking place in a span of around 30 or 40 seconds.


My reference point


The slide

As I was about to go hike towards the only reference point I had, I thankfully saw Lee's jacket. I believe he had stood up or had gotten to his stomach. I was a bit relieved, as I knew one person was alive. I decided to go to him, see how he was doing, and see if he knew were Richard was. Lee had said that I probably got to him about 1 minute after the slide had stopped. When I got to Lee, he was alright. He looked like he had gotten punched in the face and was spitting up a lot of blood. He thought he might have punctured a lung, but I figured he was moving around way too much for that to have happened. Besides that his knee was pretty bloody, but he was alive, and had no serious trauma, and wasn't paralysed. To, my even greater relief, as I looked up from Lee, I saw Richard. He was also lying above the snow. He was on his back and not moving a lot, but he said he wasn't paralysed.


Closer view


Another vantage point

Lee, thankfully had a VHF radio and was calling ski patrol to get us the hell out. I told Lee to get to a safe spot and that I would go help Richard. Richard, told me that he had almost stopped 3 times but every time he thought it was over something else propagated. Both Richard and Lee had been swept off a 50 foot cliff at the end. While Lee's injuries were relatively minor, Richard could barely walk. He had smoked his ass on a rock while he was tumbling off the 50 footer. He said that he might have had a broken hip. I worked on retrieving gear. I found one of Richard's and one of Lee's skis. Richard ended up sliding down on his stomach on that one ski to get to the spot where he heli eventually picked us up.

[postman22]

After meeting them at the bottom of the debris field I ended up making an X/Circle for the heli to land. The heli came about 20 minutes later and within 15 minutes we were sitting at the Whistler hospital.


My circle and the heli landing


Richard and Lee banged up but still in good spirtis

So everyone is probably wondering how the slide happened. I think the best people to ask are Richard and Lee. From speaking with them, Lee had cut the top slope. Nothing had moved. He got his camera out and told Richard to drop him to take some photos. As soon as Richard dropped in the whole slope slid. From what I gather it also propagated upward which is how Lee ended up getting involved as well. Everytime, they tried to stop, another part of the slop propagated. This resulted in a around a 200 to 300 m fall that ended in a 40-50 ft cliff.

For more on this please see the avalanche report that Lee posted on the CAA
http://avalanche.ca/Forums/forums/t/4719.aspx

At we got to the hospital, everything kind of kicked in. I still don't really know how I lost my stupid ski, but f**ck if I hadn't I would have been in that slide too. 3 people all in the same slide. That probably would have been bad. I kept thinking as well, if I hadn't found my other ski it would have taken me another 20 minutes to get to the moraine. While I wouldn't have witnessed the avalanche, I would have for sure thought that both Richard and Lee were dead. I'm not a particularly religious man (I mainly believe in the fact if you do good things for people, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad things that bad things will happen to you. What happened from me finding my ski, to just getting their in time to witness the slide, almost feels like too much of a coincidence. While I'm selfishly happy I wasn't in the slide, I almost wish I was. Watching that shit first hand was probably the hardest thing I've ever witnessed/experienced. It must have been the same way Toby and Athan felt as I fell down Summit Chute. Completely helpless. Just hoping that by some miracle everything would turn out alright.

Lee ended up with a bit of a banged up face and a tweaked knee. Richard's face looks like the Joker. His ass cheek is quite swollen, but I'm happy to report that his hip isn't broken. He tweaked his MCL and will likely be out of commission for a few weeks. I saw him yesterday. He was high as a kite on percasetts but in really good spirits. I'm completely amazed that no one was seriously injured and that everyone is still alive.

In skiing, especially ski movies, you here a lot of people say the risk of skiing powder is worth dying for. I think I was in that boat before this instance. I think if you are the only person skiing and no one is with you, then that may still hold true. But I don't think watching your buddies die is worth the risk of skiing powder. Kind of f**cked up logic, I know, but mentally I'm a f*cking mess right now.

I'm 99% sure I'm done with anything that has to do with backcountry skiing this year. I'll probably do it again next winter. Who knows maybe I won't. Maybe I'll pick up the normal city life, get a girlfriend, watch movies on Friday night. drink latte's on a Saturday morning, buy an expensive Arc Teryx jacket and walk around the Seawall, and be content. I think I would have to quit skiing before I quit backcountry as it has become such a big part of my life. Without it, I don't think skiing would be fun.

I briefly chatted with Toby and he kind of reiterated my thoughts. While skiing is inherently dangerous, for people like us, it's a way to release stress of our daily lives. What are we going to turn too, if we can't ski and ski the way we want too? Heroin, cocaine.

I still don't think we did anything wrong. You can't dig a pit everywhere. We had skied a 55% degree pitch with nothing but slough coming down, which we were expecting. We had skied a large bowl with no reactions. I spoke with Richard and Lee about this too and we share similar thoughts. What pisses us off and what scares us is that we can't think of anything that we would have or should have done differently.

1. How many times do you dig multiple pits after skiing 90% of your run and having no reactions?

I guess the only thing I may change is to not ski lines that don't have clean run-outs in the backcountry. The problem with the line that Richard and Lee skied was that there are a bunch of cliffs in the middle with one chute. If an avalanche were to rip from the top which it did, there would be no clean run out. Otherwise, I'm confident that both Lee and Richard would have tried to straightline out of it rather than try to dig into the snow and hold on. However, saying that, we ski so many lines with exposure even in the resort. Think Bad Attitude, think Bushrat, think Teetering Rock. Hell even think about the 25 foot cornice that we duck under on Whistler to get to The Cirque. Ski patrol don't ski cut all of them and don't bomb all of them. Something like this could have happened there as well. So who knows at this point.

The one thing that I will change is to get a VHF radio or a Satellite phone. That thing saved our asses. While I would have been able to get out fine, I can't say the same for Richard. Lee probably would have made it.

I guess in the mountains shit happens and occasionally something like this will occur. I think it's probably nature's way of evening the playing field or bringing things back to an equilibrium. We've had so many epic days, without incident, I guess every few years there is bound to be one. I think you can do all the drills but you will never be mentally prepared for when shit actually does go wrong the way it did. I'm still amazed at the highest highs I experienced from finding my ski to the lowest lows of my life that I experienced 10 seconds later. I'd like to end it by saying that I'm super glad that Richard and Lee are alright, and to thank Athan and Toby again 4 years before for calmly dealing with my fall that probably should have killed me.

I'd also like to thank Steve LeClair, who was on the radio with Lee and got a chopper to us right away. Thanks also go to the rest of the Whistler Patrol and to Kevin for sending us those avalanche photos from the heli.

If anything positive can come of this, I think an experience like this shows who your good friends are. I sent off a text to some people who I thought might be in the backcountry warning them that we had an incident and to be careful on choosing their routes home. I would say about 4 people who I hadn't even mentioned this too, joined me in the hospital. Almost every other person that I had sent the text to, showed up shortly after. I have also received numerous calls from friends who subsequently found out about this. It makes me realize that I have amazing friends who will be there through thick and thin. Finally, an experience like this also shows you what is important in life. It shows me that all the bullshit drama and the grudges I have held recently and in the past aren't worth it. Life is meant to be lived, and holding onto any of that shit just isn't worth it.

Please share your thoughts with us. Lee, Richard and I are all looking into things that we could of done better, besides the obvious of 2 skiers in the same run. Again feel free to share this story with your friends and family.

-Phil

[RootSkier]

Holy shit...I'm really glad you guys are all OK. Thanks for sharing your story.

[BFD]

Glad everyone is ok. I am very wary of deep snow this time of year. I don't know if warming played a part in your avy but I got burned last year. A little too late dropping into a steep shot didn't really see it in all the hand pits I did booting up. A little sun chages things in a hurry. As for the sluff, doesn't take much when it's steep and moving fast to knock you aff your feet. Anyway if you guys hit those spines in the spines shot way to get after it.

[JTrue]

Phil, glad everyone is alright. Turned out well considering the exposure, pretty sobering. I also wonder if the sun might have played a role, only takes a bit to heat things up and start them moving. Thanks for sharing this.

[spindrift]

Holy shit...I'm really glad you guys are all OK. Thanks for sharing your story.

+1

Glad you guys are all here to tell the tale.

[LeeLau]

If anyone knows my parents, please don't show this to them. I don't think they'll understand and the last thing I need to do is terrify them./

I wrote this up the night of the avalanche. I was trying to decompress, wrap my head around what had happened and was trying get tired (didn't want to take meds but eventually had to)

It's in point form because i wanted to try to get as much of it down as I could



Here is the Avalanche Incident Report - http://avalanche.ca/Forums/forums/t/4719.aspx. It's quite dry but contains all the information.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

* Sense of disbelief when it occurred (remember distinctly thinking "not this, not here .... "
* Yelled avalanche
* Fracture jigsawed across my feet when it occurred
* Was turning right & looked to right to try to ski off it - looked like 30cms or so of soft slab
* kept turning but got knocked off feet - tried to arrest with poles onslope but failed and was swept downslope
* Thought I had triggered it. Per Richard - slope also fractured on him. Possible it simultaneously occurred
* Both skiers were onslope at same time (I was maybe three turns upslope from Richard?
* Tried to keep feet pointed downhill. release grip on poles almost immediately (I do not use straps); was vaguely aware of skis being knocked off feet and was glad that was so
* Knew there were cliffs below
* Fell and was "cartwheeled" while in air. Aware I hit objects on the way down. Intense feeling of helplessness while being swept over cliffs (which I knew was there). Was quite convinced I was going to die either from impact or burial
* Kept hands in front of me.
* Made swimming motions
* When avalanche stopped; tried to keep hands in front for air pocket
* Debris pile hit head and forced head forward and folded head forward - airways were clear
* First reaction was to ensure airways were clear and have hands over head in case secondary debris pile hit.
* Second reaction was to yell for Richard. When heard Richard's voice - then self-extricated
* Both Richard and I didn't panic which probably helped situation
* Phil - (not buried ) was in-scene in short time with beacon out in receive - within a minute
* Tried to ensure Richard was away from hangfire but was having difficulty moving self to help. Debris was still soft. Foot pen was still to waist and I was very sore
* Self-assessed. No critical injuries (had minor injuries; wrenched knees and shoulder; was coughing up blood)
* Had radio and frequency for Whistler patrol. Knew was in cell-phone dead zone so did not attempt to use phone. Called Patrol and requested assistance
* Spoke to Patrol and dispatch. Relayed approx geographic coordinates. Relayed size of party, status of party (non-burials, relatively minor injuries, all person ambulatory, no head injuries, no spinals, all parties could be moved). Radio helped with communication greatly
* Self-assessment was that I was "banged up" & would likely go into shock in half hour or less. Spoke to Richard who said he could not move very far and not very ambulatory. Phil had all equipment and could move easily. Relayed info to patrol dispatch who advised helicopter rescue would be dispatched. Gave more information on location, on avalanche size. Was advised re heli landing procedure and followed instructions to prepare landing pad.
* Much thanks to Shawn (familiar voice kept me calm - i might have sounded calm on the radio Shawn but I was screaming inside
* Much thanks for Yvonne & Hiro. Was great to see familiar faces.
* Much thanks to all care staff at Whistler Medical Centre. You guys are kind, calm and professional.
* Sorry to Richard and thanks for his understanding. We made a mistake no question about it. I'm so glad we got away with it so easily. Telling your parents if you got injured is one of my worse fears
* Sorry to my wife for scaring her. I always want to come back to you.
* Sorry to Phil for scaring you. I know you would have been on the slope if you hadn't already been too far downslope but I'm really glad you weren't. You were on me so quick it was marvellous to see



* ironically a week ago was skiing with Shawn. Mentioned I carried a radio just in case but never had to use it in over 7 years of carrying one
* a few days ago had bumped into Rob W. Had talked about recent avalanches in BC backcountry. Both of us had never been involved and had many years of experience. Discussed that its a matter of time and exposure given how much time both of us spend out there.

[LeeLau]

Here's some pictures of the day - taken by myself, by others and by the rescuers. I've been trying to think of what Richard and I did wrong. An avalanche occurred, we were both caught. Mistakes were made so something went wrong.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm too close to the incident to be dispassionate and objective about it. I've got minor injuries but still feel overwhelmingly guilty about the whole thing with more than a bit of self-doubt. If a mistake occurs I'd like to think that I (and others can learn something from it. I've tried talking to this with others more experienced than myself as I think I might be coming up with reasons to deflect self-examination and self-criticism

My brief thoughts are

- Moraines are dangerous. They are loose rocky outcrops which breed facets. Should have been more careful around moraines

- I let my guard down. We just skied off something steep successfully and managed it well and had made what I thought were good choices in passing on three other lines which would have been difficult to manage. Now we were just going to meadowskip this little wee slope I had skied many many times

- Watch for terrain traps like cliffs. Our "intended line" - see picture below takes us well clear of the cliffs. But the avalanche took us over the cliffs.

- Be especially attentive when wind changes direction. The standard prevailing SW'er loads the lower slope and leaves the upper slope pretty bare (and more safe). The unusual NW'er we had loaded the ridgeline from which I skied. I never went back to see the bed surface but I'll bet that either Rich or I hit a sweet spot of wind-slab that propogated down off the lower angle upper slope on which we were and took us for that 250m ride. From the pictures below you can see that Rich and I were on what amounts to a big unsupported slab that must have been hair-trigger.\

- Stay with your partners (Shar pointed this out). Rich and I should have stayed with Phil but this slope is such a nice run



Like I said though, I think I'm much too close to be this to be dispassionate so would appreciate thoughtful comments so I can learn and hopefully it will be useful to all backcountry users.

Side note re the VHF radio. I don't always carry it. I'd always hoped I would never have to use it. When I do a bit trip I will make arrangements with a manned station to contact them if I have a SAR situation. I thought Rich was seriously hurt. I knew I was probably going into shock within the half-hour or so. I used the get-out-jail free card. I know I was lucky, Looking at those cliffs we were swept over and mine and Rich's facial lacerations I have no idea how we don't have broken necks, backs, jaws, or much more serious injuries.


Some pictures from the link above

OLD PICTURES SHOWING THE SLOPE IN QUESTION _ NOTE THE PERSONS IN THESE PICTURES WERE NOT INVOLVED OR PRESENT THAT DAY



Skier is located approximately at start zone



Boarder is located approximately at Rich's location when avalanche started - inteded ski path is towards the right of the screen towards the band of trees

PICTURES FROM RESCUE HELICOPTER - MARKUPS BY LEE. (ORIGINALS ARE HERE http://www.leelau.net/2010/fissileev...atrolpictures/







Picture taken from Trorey the day after. Area in red is the slide deposit



Map of the adjacent area - I ended up approx at the "E" in "Russett"

[Mofro261]

Wow. Glad to hear that everyone came out alive and relatively unharmed.

[RampagingMullet]

the picture of the boarder in the start zone gives me the chills man

[soul_skier]

I'm glad to hear that everyone is okay. You guys might want to thank that cliff, getting tossed airborne probably helped keep you near the surface, but that is just from the perspective gained by looking at the pictures, could be a totally wrong conclusion. Thanks for sharing, writing that up couldn't have been mentally easy...

[summit]

HOLY CRAP! I'm glad you are all OK. Thank you for posting such a detailed post mortem. ?s to follow

[Shaggy]

Holy shit! That's insane, you guys are really lucky.

Those full sized pictures from the heli really highlight the scale and immense challenge of locating people in a real-world slide.

[Atrain505]

Well I've talked with Phil about it. See you two soon and we'll reminisce about the good times over beers.
I was on my way to Jack's memorial when Phil called me. Knew something was bad right away.

That same day I had all time epic and stable conditions on the Hurley. The next day had horrendous avi conditions in Seagrams. Set off three slides. Two small ones triggered by accident by sled and one on purpose due to ski a cut on a small shoulder. Needless to say our day was done.

Glad everyone is ok. When so many people make the visits to mountains like fissile and currie we forget how big and dangerous and powerful they are. I know I do.

[skiingnow]

Hey Phil,

Great account.

Especially like this sentiment:

In skiing, especially ski movies, you here a lot of people say the risk of skiing powder is worth dying for. I think I was in that boat before this instance. I think if you are the only person skiing and no one is with you, then that may still hold true. But I don't think watching your buddies die is worth the risk of skiing powder. Kind of f**cked up logic, I know, but mentally I'm a f*cking mess right now.

Glad you guys made it out safely, the backcountry is a numbers game. You assume the risks and mitigate them as much as possible but then ... shit happens.

Glad Lee made it out safely, even though he's useless to me right now! but he's still warm!

[Pow4Brains]

Thanks for the somber reminder of the danger that lurks below and having the balls to put this up. Glad everyone is alive. +++Vibes+++ for the brain, bumps and bruises.

[CookieMonster]

Really glad all you guys are okay.

Nothing to add except: line-of-sight is really important. Limitation to line-of-sight, whether above or below, is an element of exposure.

Incomplete line-of-sight:


Thanks for the well-written, informative TR.

[Arno]

wow - intense stuff. thanks for sharing - educational and hopefully helps you to get your head around everything
any other reflections on contributing factors etc would be really interesting to read but clearly up to you how much you want to post on here

[homemadesalsa]

Holy smokes, guys. Glad you made it out ok.

I admire your willingness to honestly assess your decisions/ actions. Good example and hopefully good learning for the rest of us beaters.

If you want it out there in print as hard copy, give a shout. Am collecting material for next year's volume of The Avalanche Review.

[postman22]

Holy smokes, guys. Glad you made it out ok.

I admire your willingness to honestly assess your decisions/ actions. Good example and hopefully good learning for the rest of us beaters.

If you want it out there in print as hard copy, give a shout. Am collecting material for next year's volume of The Avalanche Review.

I'm ok with that, so is Richard. Will talk to Lee.

Thanks for all the feedback. I know some of you want more. Normally, I express my thoughts in about 5 seconds. I think I've said everything that I could possibly say. I really don't have anything else to add.

My only other comment of how this whole thing might have been avoided is living in Whistler and intimately knowing the snow conditions. My thought on why it may have triggered lower, is possibly because of solar heating that happened a week before and caused a meltfreeze on the crust below. It would make sense that we didn't see this layer up high, but I believe where we were was around 1800m, so maybe that caused the snow to bond like shit.

[homemadesalsa]

Thanks Postman. Lee has written for me a fair amount. Am in no hurry. Plenty of time to let things percolate, get some rear-view perspective and analysis from yourselves and some of the thoughtful comments like line-of-sight and extrapolating downward (thinking of the melt-freeze crust that isn't up high but might be lower).

Deadline for my October 1 issue is August 1.

[powder11]

I'm happy you guys are ok and that I bailed on that trip at the last min . The only thing I could add is the wind was howling from many directions that day; seemingly all at once. I hiked Blackcomb glacier and it was blowing in my face from the south west, but when I got on to the top of Disease Ridge it was blowing really hard from the east. Probably 80-100k gusts. Felt like I was going to get knocked off the ridge.

The wind could have loaded that slope without you guys even thinking about it because wind direction changed so quickly and it was blowing so hard. The wind slab doesn't appear to deep, but it must have been super dense to hold you like it did. It also warmed dramitically later in the day at lower elevations with a fine line of winter to spring conditions. Upper disease skied like full on winter blower while most of lower disease had slid into big piles of schmoo. An eye opener for me returning to the resort.

Shout out to the Aussie crew who built a booter right above a notorious terrain trap with everything sliding big around them. I was pretty shocked when I saw that and even more shocked when they laughed at me for pointing out the potential hazzard. A weird day for sure.

I guess we need to keep in mind that it is really mid April and although we've enjoyed a nice artic blast of mid winter snow, that's going to create some strange conditions when the typical seasonal weather starts rearing its ugly head.

[LeeLau]

Really glad all you guys are okay.


Incomplete line-of-sight:


Thanks for the well-written, informative TR.

I totally agree. The intended route takes us to the trees on picture right well clear of the cliffs in picture centre down a less steep slope. But the slide took us off our feet down the cliffs - which aren't in the picture.

Glad you guys made it out safely, the backcountry is a numbers game. You assume the risks and mitigate them as much as possible but then ... shit happens.

About a week and a half ago, i was speaking to Rob about this. We talked about some stats (I think it was from Tremper) and we both figured we had 1000 or so days in our lifetime in avalanche terrain. So even if make decisions right 99.9% of the time (i think that's optimistic), that still leads to one point where you make a wrong decision that puts you in a dangerous spot. It's not exactly reassuring.