07/08 Inbound Avies - Whats Up

[powdork]

This season is crazy. Inbounds avalanches have become an alomst daily event, especially of late. it would be understandable if it were just in the central rockies, with the instability from the early season. But it's happening across the west, including two in the maritime snowpack of tahoe and mammoth. is this unusual, or is it just the free flow of info available these days with the internetz.

discuss
Blackcomb - Surf's Up 1/06 noone caught
Big White - 1/06/08 1 missing at press time
Squaw - 1/05/08 2 injured in the non avalanche
Canyons - 12/23/07 1 death 1 injury
Whistler - Hanging Roll (permaclosure) 1/01/08 2 caught by small release of wind slab and carried over cliff 1 death (considering removal as the avalanche appears to be secondary to poor decision making in very dangerous closed terrain. thoughts?)
Big Sky - 12/26/07 noone caught
Mammoth - 12/14/07 2 caught
Sun Valley - 1/10/08 1 buried and recovered
Kirkwood January 27 - January 28

[Roo]

The concept of inbounds meaning safe to ski anywhere has always seemed weird from a Euro perspective.

[Kya]

It is always a possibility depending on where, how and what mountain you ski. I bring my beacon with me now in bounds. Might even start to bring along my avalung as well, since that would really be the only survival tool in an inbounds slide.

[extreeski]

Things were beginning to stabilize @ Chatter 12/29-1/1. Then the storm hit. Started out light and fluffy, perfect blower. Racing our light fast moving slough.

But on Friday the snow turned upside down and we got about 15 cm of heavy snow with higher water content.

Between this new load and the sleeping dragons of facetting and the unbonded rain crust we were starting to see reactions in the snow from ski cutting.

[IrieRon]

The concept of inbounds meaning safe to ski anywhere has always seemed weird from a Euro perspective.

That's because over here we're trained to duck ropes first, sue later. It's called "Freedom," okay?

[Mtn Man]

Just posted this in the Slide Zone forum, but it's worth posting in the Main just because of all the activity.

This 30 minute documentary is well worth the view, focuses on route selection and to listen to your friends. Not sure if this has floated around here before, so please excuse if it's a double post. Gurl I'm dating showed it to me last night, I think she's trying to keep me on this side of the snow...

http://revver.com/video/310519/a-dozen-more-turns/

B)

[Buster Highmen]

I don't know about other locales, but in PNWWWWWarshington, there's a pretty solid ice crust down under the layers of elephant snot. Cohesion between these layers is really bad and, honestly, I'm very wary this year.

A big release occurred in Avalanche Basin @ Crystal which appeared to be a 6' fracture along that interface.

[powdork]

bump for Sun valley

[Dickeymotto]

Don't forget the one at Snowbasin on Sunday.

[Bunion 2020]

Could you provide a thumbnail sketch of what happened at either Snowbasin or Sun Valley. Thx

[powdork]

Snowbasin Patrol went to the area where the man was dug out by his friend and could find no signs of avalanche activity. not even signs of post control release activity.
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_7912579

[LightRanger]

I wanna say that there was another at Mammoth after the one in which Big Tim was involved. Can't remember where I read about it. Maybe on the other board.

[Dickeymotto]

Snowbasin Patrol went to the area where the man was dug out by his friend and could find no signs of avalanche activity. not even signs of post control release activity.
http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_7912579

I was wondering about this myself. I'm thinking he got buried by slough. Disregard my above post.

[nomensteven]

The big white one was a really strange one, that slope sees a fair amount of traffic and it had been skied quite a bit that day apparently. There have been a ton of slides in general this year. A lot of older experts say here in the interior it is the worst conditions they have seen in 50 years.

[zion zig zag]

The article from the Ogden paper about the inbounds "slide" at the basin. The guy tells a pretty good story to someone who is clueless.

http://www.standard.net/live/news/122641

[skiguide]

Video interview on KSL:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2474203

[Beric]

This season is crazy. Inbounds avalanches have become an alomst daily event, especially of late. it would be understandable if it were just in the central rockies, with the instability from the early season. But it's happening across the west, including two in the maritime snowpack of tahoe and mammoth. is this unusual, or is it just the free flow of info available these days with the internetz.

discuss
Blackcomb - Surf's Up 1/06 noone caught
Big White - 1/06/08 1 missing at press time
Squaw - 1/05/08 2 injured in the non avalanche
Canyons - 12/23/07 1 death 1 injury
Whistler - Hanging Roll (permaclosure) 1/01/08 2 caught 1 death
Big Sky - 12/26/07 noone caught
Mammoth - 12/14/07 2 caught
Sun Valley - 1/10/08 1 buried and recovered

The one on New Year's Day at Whistler wasn't really an avalanche problem. It was more an issue of two guys sliding down a sheet of rain crust and over a 200 foot cliff in a permanently closed area where they had to take their equipment off to get through the steel-cabled fence. The media decided to sensationalize it by saying that the inch or two of sluffing snow was an "AVALANCHE!" and what was responsible for the tragedy.

[powdork]

currently, i've edited the post to add
"considering removal as the avalanche appears to be secondary to poor decision making in very dangerous closed terrain. thoughts?"

do you think it should be removed from the list.

[snoboy]

I think if the person was pushed off their feet by an amount of snow, then it should probably stay. It reinforces the fact that even small avalanches can kill, in the wrong terrain.

[extreeski]

So did Big Red Cats have an avy recently too?

[LeeLau]

Re blackcomb surf's up slide 3.5m crown size 3. Lee took some shots of the crown today after approximately 40cms of 1F snow fell on it.

Here in one thread are all the shots I know of about the slide

http://www.wheelsandwax.com/forums/u...es/web_153.jpg

From the Whistler Blackcomb Avalanche Advisory of January 11, 2008

A size 3 accidentally skier triggered avalanche on Sunday occurred in the ski area on a NE aspect after explosive testing and ski cutting failed to trigger any result. The crown was 3.75 meters deep and 75 meters wide and was determined to have ran on the December 4th rain crust.

There is no avalanche incident report in the avalanche.ca forums so here are my obs.

I measured the crown at 235cms (the ski poles in the picture were 125cms long and i placed them on the bed surface supported by the surrounding snow. This is not the highest part of the crown.

Slope angle where I stood was 42 degrees

I tried to dig through the bed surface (which was a melt-freeze crust) - didn't have a shovel or a sharp implement and dug to about 25cms without penetrating the crust.

The crown appears to have sheared as a solid block. Again I didn't have good light, good conditions or tools to assess properly but it appears to be 4F snow and cohesive. There was no indication that it stepped down. I would guess it was a thick slab.

Shot of the crown. Pole is resting on bed surface



Top of pole is a little below the crown. Bottom of pole is on bed surface



Front picture of crown with poles in place.



Shot of crown from glacier. I took the pictures on the lookers left side of the crown

[Dickeymotto]

The article from the Ogden paper about the inbounds "slide" at the basin. The guy tells a pretty good story to someone who is clueless.

http://www.standard.net/live/news/122641

Its like Hacksaw said, people think beacons are magic force fields of safety: "Both have also taken avalanche courses and both were carrying beacons"

"after several minutes of digging with his hands, he reached Hacking's backpack, which carried a shovel he used to finish digging out his friend."

So what did Rob intend to do in the event of a big slide? Pull out his beacon and find him, but have no way of getting to him?

Thanks for the article post flyk.

[MacDaddy]

http://revver.com/video/310519/a-dozen-more-turns/

B)

thanks for reposting that, I watched it again, its a very moving, and powerful story.

[H-wood]

definitely 2 more post control releases on Mammoth in the week after the one posted here- ch 23 and 9. A kid was taken for a ride in the ch 9 slide.

We seem to be in a warm-up that should help to stabilize things on the hill (not to mention Xmas skier compaction). I think there's going to be bad pockets in the BC for a while, but I'd be surprised to see this trend continue at mammoth mountain.

[moving to revelstoke]

The one on New Year's Day at Whistler wasn't really an avalanche problem. It was more an issue of two guys sliding down a sheet of rain crust and over a 200 foot cliff in a permanently closed area where they had to take their equipment off to get through the steel-cabled fence. The media decided to sensationalize it by saying that the inch or two of sluffing snow was an "AVALANCHE!" and what was responsible for the tragedy.

According to avalanche.ca it was a wind slab ranging from 20-30cm deep. Check the thread on this incident specifically
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=107296