Avalanche Death Gulmarg, Kashmir 7/2/07

[cj001f]

RIP Shaggy (Shaun Kratzer of Melbourne, Australia)

Skier triggered, single triggerer caught, buried and killed. Slide ran for ~500m vertical, victim was found and extracted <20 minutes from the time the slide was triggered. 1m deep burial. N-NE Aspect slope. I'll post a picture of the full path in a couple weeks when I get home.

(current newspaper reports are wildly inaccurate, and using craptastic Reuters photos from some shitbag)

[wanghoeby]

Trauma, Asphyxiation, or both?

[nexus]

shaun was an old freestyle team-mate of mine... any details would be appreciated

[cj001f]

Here's a picture of the path:

edit: the arrows didn't save. Anyways, start is near the crest of the spine just lower right of the text, burial is below right of the burial location text.

[f2f]

that's some ride

[cj001f]

Here's a better view of the start zone:


A majority of the tracks, including the traverses, were prior to the slide....

[Toby]

that's some ride

Shit yeah. And from the first pic, that's a sketchy traverse out too, within the alpha angle of some big zones hanging above it. I'd surely be looking up the whole way along that. With the amount of tracks all along the ridgeline it looks like he hit the unlucky jackpot . RIP.

[cj001f]

This is a writeup from biglines:
http://biglines.com/articles_readmor...le=1&read=3399

here's my summary:

Victim was skiing with 2 splitboarders. Victim was first in party to ski slope, dropped in, made a turn on steep (45) top section and the slope slide. Slope had been traversed lower, a party of 2 had skied skiers left shortly before the slide. 4 foreign patrollers (2 on duty, 2 who were supposed to be patrolling before GOI yanked approval) riding up the gondola saw the slide and proceeded to the debris field at the bottom. The victims partners proceeded to visual & beacon search down the slide path. By the time the partners had reached the terminus the victim had been probe located after a beacon search by the others. Upon excavation the victim was not breathing and did not respond to CPR.

[Squatch]

major bummer. RIP

[Toby]

I'm amazed they found him so quickly given the size of the slide. Of course, maybe the path is clean so they just concentrated on the deposition zone at the bottom. The picture doesn't show it, but I wouldn't be surprised if that gully is full of debris which would complicate the search. Good job.

Nice pictures cj.

[yugi]

I was there. Not on that ridge then but nearby.

Some details:
Under the upper slide the runout was long but narrow. Yes, he triggered it himself from the top. Its not 45 deg. The classic convex rollover of the slope and the classic 35 to 40 degs. At the top there was a layer of wind slab as the wind the days prior had been coming directly from behind (straight into the camera). Which is what made it the hot spot. More notably it happened at 1pm. That morning I made a safety comment to my group to be very wary at 1pm as temps would affect the snowpack. Also everyone skiing were clearly warned of the bad layer in those shady NE aspects. But, yes, many had traversed it in the morning prior to the slide. Propabably making it look safer than it was.

Situation:
I’d skied that exact ridgeline into that bowl the day before.

We’d opened the lookers upper right of the slope you see in the photo where the many tracks can be seen. Tucking under to lowest rock in that part of the slope we’d traversed skiers right to get to just below the bigger rock you see on the lookers right edge of the avalanche path. It forms a small ridge which is normally a safe spot to regroup. Under 30cm of snow there was 50cm of graupel and sugar. While the top 30cm held OK it was clearly not good and we got the hell out of there FAST to avoid all such aspects that day and the day of the slide.

Search:
A local guide saw it happen and could see where the skier was dragged. He called to some of his colleagues nearby to come assist. They proceeded directly to the deposit zone, searched, located and got to him in 21 minutes. Dead. The autopsy showed his neck was broken.

That bowl is now being called Shaggy’s bowl. Some of the ski alpinism saavy locals don’t agree with the new nickname as they say many have bit it in that bowl before the lift was built. To them it’s a know slide zone.

[cj001f]

Its not 45 deg.

45 is my note of what J said he measured the initial start at, declining after that.

I'm curious where your information came from - it differs from the other accounts. I'm the one in orange boots in the reuters photo.

[yugi]

The assessment of the slope is my own. Just judged angle by eyeballing. I stand corrected if it was measured otherwise. The accounts of the search I got straight from Mustagh and Billa who say they dug him out. Yassin and Arif filled me in on the bowls prior reputation.

I’m the telemarker from Switerland. Haven’t seen the reuters photo. You wouldn’t happen to be Chance or Peter?

[f2f]

found the photo. it's chilling. let me know if you want me to pull it.

[sfotex]

CJ,
Sorry you had to go thru that.

RIP Shaun Kratzer