12/26 Fatality on Pucker Face, just beyond the JHMR ropes

[skiingsamurai]

Details still coming in, but one male snowboarder died.

http://www.earlyups.com/news/avalanc...ker-face-jhmr/

There was a crown half way up the face 48 hrs ago when the snow fell. Natural trigger from what I can tell, it propagated across the entire lower half of the bowl. Guy cut the top half of a hang fire, total time bomb.

Armchair QB-ing aside, tons of people making REALLY bad decisions right now.

Vibes++

[huckbucket]

Ohh ...

[adrenalated]

Just the thought of going for a ride in that terrain makes me sick to my stomach.
Condolences to family and friends.

[spook]

i don't know shit about avalanches but that looks huge. big penalty.

[skiingsamurai]

I skied it once last season. Freaking steep, 45* with no safe spots other than out of range at the bottom of the bowl.
Its a really fun face, but can be super sketchy.

[rideit]

Guys name was Mikey Kazanjy.

[skiingsamurai]

Sounds like he was a local too.
Really tragic

[slobmonster]

Met and skied with Mike last winter in Telluride. He's from Cali but sure got around. Always shocked and sad to have (yet another) friend die in the snow.

[strawjack]

Armchair QB-ing aside, tons of people making REALLY bad decisions right now.

Vibes++

Sucks to lose another rider. Vibes


Obviously a bad decision. Certainly not armchairing here but there are times that I'm glad the ropes were closed when I was there. I've skied that face a few times, but it was spring corn. Didn't have the options available there today to 'try' and make an educated decision as to the safety of the slope early thru mid winter. Not saying it should be closed...god knows we poached enough...just saying... It just sucks to lose people needlessly. vibes

[Ebkilla]

I Have known mike about 7 years he was always a great skier, always cautious but pushing it. We always partied and skied like champs together with a great group of UC Berkeley folk I came to know through my younger brother.

It's a huge tragedy, Tahoe and all the homies are going to miss skiing with you. My heart goes out to his family, friends, and anybody who had the privilege of skiing with him. Bottoms up brother man I will see you in the next life.

[skifishbum]

i pass no judgement
offer only vibes
for the loss

[Lindahl]

That sucks, but yeah, scary bad decision. Wonder how much the CA background played into it. Shit is WAY different inland. Sounds like he was only out here for a week? Wish he had taken more time to figure out how the snowpack out here works. Wonder if he was with anyone, i.e. acceptance/expert halo from being out there with a more seasoned Jackson dude?

[DLJudson]

View of Pucker Face a few minutes after the slide

[Ebkilla]

DL u got a link that works want to look at that slide

[bfr]

huckbucket's pic in post #2 has got to be pretty much the same. and I think may be the same as this:

[LightRanger]

After reading this thread, checking his FB page, and conferring with a friend, I realized I shared a beer with him before watching this year's TGR flick a couple months back. Really really nice dude. He was talking about how he was quitting his day job and moving to Jackson. Super amped on life. He's friends with a number of people on this board and may have posted here.

[meter-man]

The world is a much darker place without Mike. Gonna miss ya bro.

Vibes to the great beyond.

[bendtheski]

That sucks. Only 29, and the day after Christmas to boot. Gotta be tough on family and people who knew him.
Won't pass judgement on the wisdom of riding that line. Obviously other people have gotten away with it.

[totaliboard]

Condolences to those affected. Skiied right near the pucker face in late spring. some of the wildest windlips peelin off the ridge..

[JeffreyJim]

The amount of warming was nuts (at least to me). 33 degrees prior to the event.

Did a little writeup here. http://www.earlyups.com/videos/jh-av...lity-thoughts/

I by no means am "above" this one. Ridden that line on "moderate" days myself...

[cold_smoke]

condolences...

props JJ- that is how a propa writeup is done right there.

[skiingsamurai]

The amount of warming was nuts (at least to me). 33 degrees prior to the event.

Did a little writeup here. http://www.earlyups.com/videos/jh-av...lity-thoughts/

I by no means am "above" this one. Ridden that line on "moderate" days myself...

Same here, makes me rethink my normal go/no-go list. The sky is easy to see (ie are the clouds parting), winds are easy to feel (because theyre typically cold and not awesome), but a few degree rise in temps is easy to overlook; I KNOW Im guilty of it.

[raisingarizona13]

I skied it once last season. Freaking steep, 45* with no safe spots other than out of range at the bottom of the bowl.
Its a really fun face, but can be super sketchy.

I used to think it was one of the most dangerous slopes out of the Vill. It often loads like crazy when there is wind and it has a blind convex roll over into 45+ degrees. I have stepped out (one foot out and one on top) onto that thing and had fractures propagate at least 50 feet below and to either side of me. Back then around 2000 we didn't just go for that thing, it often scared the shit out of me! But.....we skied it with powder and I bet the ratings were moderate, we thought we were making thought out educated decisions but who the fuck really knows? Maybe we just got lucky. Ratings aside if you really want to ski big steep back country terrain the forecast is only the most basic of tools.

After reading some of the related posts I wonder how many back country riders would be completely lost without a forecast?

[meatspicy]

first off, all my vibes to mikey's family. dealing with a tragedy like this is beyond devastating any time of year, but to have this happen during the holidays, im sure christmas week will never be the same for them, so i send all thoughts/prayers their way

i usually refrain from armchairing on avalanche accidents but i also firmly believe it is our responsibility to analyze these events and learn what we can from them in order to save lives in the future

flags:
-widespread faceted snow, especially in shallower areas (like pucker face)
-a foot of super light density snow, followed by 16" of wet heavy wind slabbed snow with 3" water content
-recent natural slide activity in the area, including on the very face in question
-steep hanging snowfield with massive consequences if snow starts moving
-1:30pm on one of the warmest days of the year on a sun exposed aspect (35 deg at time of accident)

I can't help but think that mikey saw the "moderate" advisory and gave himself the greenlight without checking the list of obvious signs. I have done this myself several times. I have probably skied pucker 15+ times on moderate days without much thought, and it makes me sick to my stomach knowing I have made the very same mistake several times and gotten away with it. I hope my post doesn't upset anyone, but hopefully mike's accident will be a reminder to all of us to always use our own best judgement in addition to the avalanche advisories. Sometimes the signs are there, but we are too quick to trust the pros.

RIP mikey

[adrenalated]

I can't help but think that mikey saw the "moderate" advisory and gave himself the greenlight without checking the list of obvious signs. I have done this myself several times. I have probably skied pucker 15+ times on moderate days without much thought, and it makes me sick to my stomach knowing I have made the very same mistake several times and gotten away with it. I hope my post doesn't upset anyone, but hopefully mike's accident will be a reminder to all of us to always use our own best judgement in addition to the avalanche advisories. Sometimes the signs are there, but we are too quick to trust the pros.

Something that I think is worth remembering is that the danger rating only describes the likelihood of a slide occurring, not the consequences. In my limited experience in the Jackson area, it seems that many, if not most "moderate" days are dealing with low probability, low to medium consequence avalanche problems. Something that struck me about the avy forecast for the Tetons over the last few days is that it sounded a hell of a lot like a Colorado midwinter avy forecast. Low probability, but very high consequence avalanche problems with deep persistent slabs that are difficult to trigger, but break deeply, propagate widely, run full path and are very destructive. I've always called these conditions "scary moderate." I've found that these high consequence slides demand a much different approach to terrain selection than low to medium consequence slides (such as smaller, localized wind slabs).