Avi death on Torreys

[GeoMatt]

CAIC has a has a note posted up about a death today near the Dead Dog on Torreys. Anyone have additional info? Vibes to anyone with involvement.

[powdork]

on the homepage it says

Announcements

Colorado's 7th Avalanche Death

On May 21 a snowboarder was killed near the Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys Peak (Front Range zone). Our thoughts go out to their family and friends. We will post more details as they become available.

[TransplantedFromRMNP]

+++++ vibes

[smitchell333]

Damn

Snow was sloppy and not well frozen yesterday, not a good day for pushing it.

[killclimbz]

It was super sketch in the alpine yesterday. I kicked off a slide at the top of the North Chute on Grizzly yesterday. Top 10-20" was just wind slabbed enough to be a problem. Booted back up the chute and found that the CDT was complete white out. Had a hell of a time making back down to the highway. Hike For Turns did the right chute and they experienced much of the same but were committed. They got down safely. Lot's of mistakes made, plenty learned.

Loveland Pass was closed so we had to drive the tunnel to get to Bakerville to meet HFT and John. S&R was there, and it sound like the victim was going to be fine, they were waiting for a helicopter. At least that is what they said. Obviously this wasn't the case.

RIP.

[HikeforTurns]

Ugh. Really sad to hear he didnt pull through. In talking with his buddy at the trailhead, it sounds like they may have dropped a little below the summit and may not have dropped dead dog proper, but I think thats where they ended up. He ended up triggering a small storm slab that took him over rocks. No burial.

Thoughts to his family and friends.

[mbizzles]

So sad. Thoughts go out to friends/family. Stay safe everyone!

[FiveLarge]

KC, HfT - glad you guys made it out safely. I made it up toward Loveland at about 5pm last night for a low-key below TL after work dusk patrol - vis up high wasn't good from I-70, but thought I saw a fracture on Sniktau's NE face that was pretty good sized.

[Slaag Master]

rip..............

[pbourdon]

Shit. This sucks. RIP.

Be safe out there guys...things are super sketch right now with all the new storm snow and warm sun.

[CG]

Spooky day yesterday, really unhappy to hear how this turned out.

+++VIBES+++

[CG]

From the Summit County Citizens Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The seventh avalanche death of the season in Colorado occurred May 21 when a snowboarder died on 14,267-foot Torreys Peak, a popular mountaineering destination on the Continental Divide between Summit County and Clear Creek County.

According to a press release from the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, Joel Levenberg, 38, from Superior, was caught in a slide on the east face of Torreys Peak and swept down about 1,000 feet.

Levenberg was located at about 12,800 feet, complaining of right chest and hip pain.

Responding to an emergency page at 2:44 p.m., the Evergreen-based Alpine Rescue team sent 26 members to the rescue, using 10 snowmobiles to shuttle rescuers as close as possible to the scene. Both the weather and the location of the victim precluded an aerial rescue by Flight for Live.

Traveling on skis and snowshoes, the first rescuers reached Levenberg at about 5:30 p.m. A paramedic from the Summit County Rescue Group rendered first aid and rescuers started evacuation procedures in severe conditions. During the evacuation, at about 7 pm., Levenberg succumbed to his injurie and was pronounced dead.

According to a preliminary report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, the accident involved a party of three backcountry travelers. Click here to read the latest CAIC bulletin on backcountry snow, weather and avalanche conditions. The first of the trio to start down the terrain in the vicinity of Dead Dog Couloir was caught in a slide and swept into some rocks.

The rescue operation was conducted in challenging conditions, with blowing snow creating a near white-out, according to Steve Wilson, a public information officer with the Evergreen-based Alpine Rescue Team.

Avalanche experts have been warning of the potential for dangerous slides the past few weeks as an unusually deep spring snowpack remains poised to avalanche as the weather warms or as cornices give way under their own weight.

A climber was seriously injured in the same area exactly one year ago, to the day.

[tone capone]

Really sorry about this. Vibes to the victim, his family, and the alpine rescue team.

[ski.stealer]

Not suprised to read this.. I just drove over loveland pass on my way back down the hill and there were so many tracks next to avy debris, you'd think the avi's were an indication of where you're supposed to ski. The sisters went something like, debris, debris, debris, debris, debris, tracks. Somebody straightlined the prof. I lost count of the tracks correlated to debris, and even with the entire area showing released slabs on every aspect, there were trucks of people getting ready to go ski.

[Lindahl]

Not suprised to read this.. I just drove over loveland pass on my way back down the hill and there were so many tracks next to avy debris, you'd think the avi's were an indication of where you're supposed to ski. The sisters went something like, debris, debris, debris, debris, debris, tracks. Somebody straightlined the prof. I lost count of the tracks correlated to debris, and even with the entire area showing released slabs on every aspect, there were trucks of people getting ready to go ski.

Yeah, once it warmed up, a lot started moving. Lots of releases at Berthoud, too, but people were a bit smarter about what they skied except one group. We kicked off a small slab in manageable terrain (we thought it might pop) at around 9am, far skiers left on Rush (4?). An hour or even two later, a group thought it would be a good idea to traverse above the rocky billygoat terrain on Rush 3(?) right under the convexity. Both morons got flushed right over the rocks. Luckily they were only shaken up. I wonder if they thought the airbags they pulled also made them impervious to rock. Definitely more dollars than sense in that group. Unfortunately they did so many things wrong, I doubt they picked up every lesson from that experience.

Like I commented on the summit voice story page. The storm snow slab is touchy, so while full burial is unlikely, you still MUST be smart with your terrain management and choices.

[bendtheski]

I hesitated to post this yesterday, but since it looks like CAIC/Summit Daily, 9news and Denver Post have already named names, etc. here goes...

I dispatch for Clear Creek. I took the 911 call from one of the three who had been on Torreys. The r/p was calling from the Bakerville lot. He had left a friend with the injured party and I'm not sure how much time had passed from the time of the accident until he was able to place the 911 call, but I'm guessing at least an hour. (edit, more like 1:45)

There had apparently been a slide on dead dog, 600-700 feet in length. The injured party had been carried over some rocks, but not burried. The two others with him gave him all their extra clothes and then one of them skied/rode out to call for help. I got that the injured party had possible internal injuries, possibly broken ribs and a hip injury and was in a lot of pain.

Deputies were immediately sent to meet with the r/p, Alpine Rescue and some members of Summit SAR were paged out and flights for life were put on standby. Cloud cover, wind and snow prevented flights from flying so Alpine Rescue had to reach the injured party by snowmobile which obviously took more time.

My shift ended before Alpine team members had reached the victim. I had heard they were going to send a light team in at first to assess injuries and try to stabilize the patient before transporting, 3.5 miles and about 2500'vert.

I called dispatch a couple of hours later for an update expecting to hear that the patient had been transported and team members were out of the field. Instead they told me that Alpine had reached and assessed the victim who apparently was suffering from internal injuries/bleeding and that he had expired before being able to be transported.

My heart sank. I pictured the victim in extreme pain, getting colder and colder while his friend watched on helplessly, wondering when help would arrive. Then I thought about the victim's family; was he married? Did he have kids?

I've only been dispatching a relatively short time and have already handled some pretty f'ed up calls, but this one really impacted on me. I don't pretend to be a big BC skier. I've done a little touring in the spring when hopefully the snowpack is a bit more stable. My wife hates the idea especially when she hears about things like this. She's pretty much put her foot down on my touring which is fine by me. There's still plenty of fun/danger in-bounds and I've accepted that I have more to think about now than just myself. If she lost me, the house would probably be soon to follow along with any real reason to live in Colorado. She doesn't even ski and moving to Colorado was really my idea.

I came here today looking for any more information on the incident. 9news and the Denver Post don't seem to have picked up on the story, but I had a feeling something would be posted here. (edit; 9news now has the story, but saying it happened Sunday, not Saturday. DP has no date) I'm probably not supposed to say as much as I have, but I have purposely left out names, ages, etc. I thought it might be helpful to express my feelings on the incident and fill in a few of the blank pages of the story.

Touring can be risky business and when you're far off the beaten track, I think you need to have the mindset that you might as well be on another planet. Under optimal conditions help may still be hours (3, 4 or more) away, and you need to be pretty much self-sufficient and plan for the worst. I doubt anyone carries a first aid kit that can address internal injuries very effectively, so similar to avalanche danger, this probably falls under the category of acceptable risk, or in my case, unacceptable. Regardless, this is the worst possible outcome short of additional injuries/deaths of 1st responders, and not at all what I expected.

Really sad. Vibes. bts

[Edgnar]

Thanks for the info bendtheski. The snowpack up there was really scary on Saturday. Our group learned some lessons in humility.

++++Vibes to friends and family++++

[smitchell333]

Sucks bad. RIP Joel.

My partner and I were out on Saturday in Rocky Mountain National Park. We bailed out on our objectives at treeline because of the danger of fresh slabs built and building on slushy unconsolidated snow showing cracking and drumming.

Bailing out on plans is tough, esp with the allure of fresh snow, and with the calendar reading late May. But you HAVE to be able to both recognize dangerous conditions and bail out, otherwise you are just taking your chances rather than really practicing mountain craft. It seems like this past couple of years lots of seemingly highly experienced people getting nailed in situations that in retrospect seem somewhat obviously highly dangerous. I think that the unfortunate reality is that many of us are not that skilled in mountain travel, we are just good skiers with backcountry tours under our belts gained in large part through determination to go for it and, well, dumb luck. That doesn't necessarily make you an expert that just makes you lucky. Pulling the plug in the face of fluffy powder b/c its dangerous is what shows that you're an expert.

I get the pull of the big line - Friday night my ski partner and I were talking about aggressive objectives like the north face of Kelso, north face of Grizzly, north face of Otis, James Peak Starlight Couloir. Heck we were headed for serious terrain on Otis in the morning hoping conditions weren't as bad as we feared. But we have to be able to recognize sketchy conditions before shit happens and get the heck out of there safely.

And I have to say that the CAIC, news orgs, us on these forums, et al haven't been doing the right thing by saying shit like "he was highly experienced," "sometimes there is nothing to do, its just dangerous," "now is not the time to 2nd guess," etc. So we never really get to the crux of the matter to actually learn something. Fuck, if I die tomorrow in an avy or a fall I INSIST that you 2nd guess the fuck out of me, find where I screwed it up and learn something from it, rather than sticking your head in the sand.

[montanaskier]

sad, sad, sad deal.

[simple]

Well said smitchell. RIP Joel.

[mbizzles]

I think that the unfortunate reality is that many of us are not that skilled in mountain travel, we are just good skiers with backcountry tours under our belts gained in large part through determination to go for it and, well, dumb luck. That doesn't necessarily make you an expert that just makes you lucky. Pulling the plug in the face of fluffy powder b/c its dangerous is what shows that you're an expert.

Couldn't agree more smitchell, especially this part. There's a difference between being an insensitive asshole/Monday morning quarterbacking and really learning from others unfortunate experiences.

Again, vibes to friends, family, and the rescue team.

[old goat]

One big difference between skiing and mountaineering is that in mountaineering dangerous conditions are often the least enjoyable to climb in, while in skiing they are often the most enjoyable--fresh snow. I remember years ago reading about the first ski descent of the Eiger west face--might have been Saudan. Snow conditions were so bad it was too dangerous to climb--so he took a helicopter up.

My condolences to the famioy and friends.

[Bob Loblaw]

sad stuff - we lost a good member of our ski community to a similar situation last year, he was skiing alone though and it took days to recover him from a mountain many of us can see from our windows. ++++ stay safe out there ++++

[summit]

Great post smitchell.

I would love to hear from some of many folks out that day who have posted that they were humbled or learned something: How were you humbled? What was your though process and plan and why? What did you learn so that others may benefit from your experience?

[grabtindy]

I was out with 2 other experienced bc riders on Saturday as well. We climbed the east ridge of Quandary Peak and descended the Cristo Couloir. We we're up early and descending by 10am or so. Of the three of us, 1 had skied the same line just last week and had reported glory corn. We had observed 4-6" of new snow, and though conditions were windy on the skin up we didn't see much evidence of transported snow.

From the peak, we made our way down the 1st pitch without any warning signs. We saw a convex rollover leading to the main chute and decided to slow down and play it safe. 1 member of our group made a single cut just above teh rollover released a rather large soft slab. We had underestimated the new snow as this soft, heavy, wet slab was 12-18" deep and fractured wall to wall in the chute. The lead rider was able to self arrest quickly and traverse to a safe zone. We came down 1 by 1 to assess his condition and our options. The bed was a very firm melt/freeze surface that had obviously not bonded at all with the new snow. Our main concern on teh skin up was getting down before things had heated up too much. Given the near whiteout conditions, frigid temps and lack of sun, a normal spring wet slide wasn't the real issue, but rather the poorly bonded new snow. We made our way down the rest of the chute in very short segments, making sure to stay in visual contact with each other which was difficult.

The entire length of the couloir had released that morning, we still don't know if it was a result of our trigger or if we released a slab onto a surface that had already slid.

Big lessons -
The calendar is not a reliable predictor of conditions. We were in a bit of a relaxed spring state of mind and conditions were anything but.

Dig a pit. Every time. Don't think that the 4-6" observed on similar aspects on the ascent means that the run you're on is identical.

Always wear a helmet - I brought mine in the car and chose not to wear it. On the ride down I was prepared to open it up into the rocky sides in case anything hanging above us released. This would have been a much more comfortable proposition if my head was protected.

Make sure you trust your crew. In this case I did and still do. It was an unnerving descent, but no one panicked and we ended up OK, if spooked. We had a thorough debrief once back at the car to discuss where we went wrong.

I think the whiteout conditions were the most dangerous aspect. If vision was better we may have been able to see more evidence of new snow, earlier slide activity, changes farther down teh run etc. Since we were limited to about 100 feet of vision (at most), we could only visually asses the first pitch.

I enjoy the backcountry, but compared to most on here I keep things pretty tame. This tested my risk tolerance and is probably about as spicy as I hope to see for a long time.


Vibes to the friends and families of the group who was not as lucky as we were on Saturday.