Flat Tops Wilderness Slide/1st CO Fatality

[blazes_boylan]

Sad news, 2 caught, 1 killed near West Lost Lake in northern Flat Tops Wilderness Area west of Toponas, CO. Not many details so far.

http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ac...=631&accfm=rep

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2...ffs-reservoir/

[simple]

That buried surface hoar layer is so bad

[blazes_boylan]

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/15...nowbike-death/

[cravenmorhead]

Yeah, not much detail yet. Though in the photo of Searle, it looks like he's wearing a Float airbag.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Were they in the Wilderness Area?

[simple]

Were they in the Wilderness Area?

Yeah it appears that way. Anything over 9500' is wilderness in the flat tops.

[adrenalated]

Yeah it appears that way. Anything over 9500' is wilderness in the flat tops.

I think you meant 10,500', but even that isn't accurate - Sheriff's Reservoir, in the news report, is at the edge of the wilderness boundary at 9,700' with a road and a developed campground, and there are peaks over 10,500' nearby that aren't in the wilderness area.

However, West Lost Lake as mentioned in the CAIC report is definitely in the wilderness area.

Edit: Steamboat Pilot posted this as the accident location on Facebook. This is absolutely inside the wilderness area.

[capulin overdrive]

Read couple miles south of Vaughn Lake from other sources?


But yeah, lots of thinking they were in wilderness?

[adrenalated]

Read couple miles south of Vaughn Lake from other sources?

West Lost Lake is a few miles south of Vaughn Lake, so that would make sense.

[MakersTeleMark]

I know that area well. Definitely designated wilderness. Not to be crass, but cowboy up:

http://www.vaildaily.com/news/friend...lanche-victim/

"U.S. Forest Service and Search and Rescue officials confirmed Wednesday that Christensen and Searle had been riding in a wilderness area, where motorized vehicles are prohibited."

[blazes_boylan]

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/17...nowbike-cause/

[goldenboy]

CAIC Final Report is up: http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ac...inv&acc_id=631

Lots of stuff to take note of. Survivor's airbag didn't inflate?
Deceased had an airbag but no beacon? Did he try and fail to deploy his bag as well?
Sounds hair trigger- 3 slides in a short amount of time...
33 degree slope

[capulin overdrive]

Damn! Wondered if they were gonna write a full report. Can now understand how it took awhile.

[summit]

friend of a friend (never met him)... six kids... weird and shitty situation

[sfotex]

Thought this was interesting:

We observed three snow profiles in the area, one in the crown of the avalanche. In all three profiles the surface hoar crystals were laying down, and difficult to see in the pit wall. In Extended Column Tests the crack propagated across the column on tap number 26 and 28. We had one test that did not produce a propagating crack.

[cravenmorhead]

Sounds like things were touchy:

Rider 2 was worried about the length of time that Rider 1 was missing and decided he needed to get help. He hiked uphill and dug out his bike, which was buried with part of the ski sticking out. He rode towards the top of the slope, parking his bike just below the crown about 15 feet into the south flank of the avalanche. He walked up to the ridgeline and searched for a cell phone signal to send a message, but was unsuccessful. He walked downhill towards his bike, but it was no longer where he left it. A third avalanche released while he was out of sight, washing his bike downhill. Part of his bike was sticking out of the debris. He descended the slope on the bed surface and retrieved the machine. He rode back to the meadow below the slope, then north and up to a higher portion of the same north/south running ridgeline. There he got a weak cell phone signal and sent a text message with a rough location and asking for help.

[goldenboy]

Thought this was interesting:

We observed three snow profiles in the area, one in the crown of the avalanche. In all three profiles the surface hoar crystals were laying down, and difficult to see in the pit wall. In Extended Column Tests the crack propagated across the column on tap number 26 and 28. We had one test that did not produce a propagating crack.

Combine those results with multiple slides for the survivor...

So the moral of the story is never trust SH, I guess?

[summit]

Thought this was interesting:

We observed three snow profiles in the area, one in the crown of the avalanche. In all three profiles the surface hoar crystals were laying down, and difficult to see in the pit wall. In Extended Column Tests the crack propagated across the column on tap number 26 and 28. We had one test that did not produce a propagating crack.

Not that surprising... seen plenty of laid down SH around that doesn't talk back easily... and I'd certainly not expect it to be standing up in a FLP even if it was up before the slide.

More interesting that they both had airbags, neither deployed (one was certainly attempted)... and they didn't perform a trailhead check clearly...

Oh man reading a news article, there are a gaggle of buffoons screaming for someone to prosecute the survivor and the family of the decesased for brapping in W... wtf is wrong with people?

[adrenalated]

Combine those results with multiple slides for the survivor...

So the moral of the story is never trust SH, I guess?

And that propagating results in an ECT = BAD regardless of how many taps it takes.

[simple]

Combine those results with multiple slides for the survivor...

So the moral of the story is never trust SH, I guess?

I thought the moral of the story was wear a beacon? It was a shallow burial and he couldn't find him with visual or probe.

All in all a tragic story.

[goldenboy]

I thought the moral of the story was wear a beacon? It was a shallow burial and he couldn't find him with visual or probe.

All in all a tragic story.

Well, yeah, there is that too. And keep visual contact

[BFD]

I do not know when the site visit was. Apparently the report was put out 9 days after the incident. it seems possible the warm temps could of affected the test results if done at a later date.

[goldenboy]

Same 1/19 SH layer as the Flat Tops slide, CBAC observation on 1/26: "The usual bag of tricks aren’t working. No collapsing or cracking observed on low angle terrain, stability tests weren’t concerning, yet every slope we touched steeper than 33 degrees avalanched on surface hoar about 15-20″ deep"
http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ob...p?obs_id=44937

[simple]

I do not know when the site visit was. Apparently the report was put out 9 days after the incident. it seems possible the warm temps could of affected the test results if done at a later date.

They visit the site the next day in almost all incidents. Sometimes they can't if weather is awful.

[adrenalated]

They visit the site the next day in almost all incidents. Sometimes they can't if weather is awful.

This. The date on the pit profile is Feb 15, which is the day after the accident.