MASSIVE Shuskan Arm slide

**clarklewis** · 03-15-2011, 10:16 PM

can't get ahold of 2 good friends in glacier who ski that zone religiously (and a bit loosely). has it been confirmed then that there were no victims? i'd like to know so i can relax.

Hugh Conway · 03-15-2011, 10:21 PM

prohos have no photos, only gossip, how new

**Eluder** · 03-15-2011, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by clarklewis

can't get ahold of 2 good friends in glacier who ski that zone religiously (and a bit loosely). has it been confirmed then that there were no victims? i'd like to know so i can relax.

No pings and no cars in the parking lot. If they hitch hike and go out of bounds with out beacons then maybe.

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

prohos have no photos, only gossip, how new

hehe, still at it.

You cant see shit up there right now. I went for a look today and really only could check out the debris.

**Gunder** · 03-15-2011, 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by rludes025

No pings and no cars in the parking lot. If they hitch hike and go out of bounds with out beacons then maybe.

hehe, still at it.

You cant see shit up there right now. I went for a look today and really only could check out the debris.

No cell service in glacier, and no one is reported missing, so I am sure your friends are fine.... probally juse really STONED.

I'm heading up in the am to shoot some pics of it. Hopefully we will have soem vis.

**mtraslin** · 03-15-2011, 11:13 PM

Wow....Thanks for sharing! That is a big zone...A good reminder to have healthy respect out there....

**grrrr** · 03-15-2011, 11:19 PM

It would be a good thing if more of the avi events made it to NWAC and CAIC. There's no report of the Mt. Cashmere fatality, the Grouse ridge burial or the (at least) two burials this season on the elbow.

People keep pushing the boundaries, and the warning signs are there. Maybe if people realised about the accidents and near misses, a few more would think twice.

**displaced** · 03-15-2011, 11:30 PM

where can the details on the mt. cashmere fatality be found?... I hadn't heard about that?

**grrrr** · 03-15-2011, 11:36 PM

The mt cashmere one is on CAIC, but not NWAC.

Hugh Conway · 03-15-2011, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by rludes025

You cant see shit up there right now. I went for a look today and really only could check out the debris.

AND NO FUCKING PHOTOS! HOLY SHIT! YOU ARE FUCKING AWESOME!

Hugh Conway · 03-15-2011, 11:48 PM

oMG! tHERE WAS AN aVALANCHE IN THE MOUNTAINS AFTER SNOW! iT WAS BIG!

**bakerpow** · 03-15-2011, 11:48 PM

Dang, wasn't around Baker during the 98-99 but this thing scared me, i have been riding the arm a little to loosely.

**Eluder** · 03-15-2011, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

AND NO FUCKING PHOTOS! HOLY SHIT! YOU ARE FUCKING AWESOME!

here you go fuck stick

**ectreeskier11** · 03-15-2011, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by rludes025

here you go fuck stick

wow, that looks gnar

. hope everyone's OK, sounds like no one involved.

**Eluder** · 03-16-2011, 12:00 AM

Originally Posted by ectreeskier11

wow, that looks gnar

. hope everyone's OK, sounds like no one involved.

I know, see all the limbs littering the debris. Sorry its a little hard to see with all the snow coming down.

**SchralphMacchio** · 03-16-2011, 12:21 AM

Is "Retard's Traverse" the one that goes out to the low angle mature stand of trees way looker's left, but goes under those stupidly huge and obviously regular slide paths to get there from the top of 8? I was watching people go out there during the storm cycle at the end of February and beginning of this month just thinking wtf?

Wow I hope no one was caught there. They need 40" printed photos of the 98-99 slide at the top of 8 with some text that says, "HEY STONER! CAN YOU SWIM OUT FROM UNDERNEATH THIS?"

**fish** · 03-16-2011, 12:35 AM

i always thought it was spelled shuksan

**SchralphMacchio** · 03-16-2011, 01:52 AM

also another question for you PNW mags ... if the failure or bed layer really was a Feb rain event, did NWAC discuss continued PWL considerations regarding extreme gradients from the unseasonally cold snowpack on top of the crust?

Just wondering what information you guys had at hand up there on-hand before this bad boy ripped deep ... slides that big are obviously really f'ing scary and I'd like to learn more about the dynamics. Although both CA and WA are supposed to have "maritime snowpacks" I feel like the lower elevation & big swings in temp trends throughout a season leads to more deeply buried PWLs up there than it does down here.

Originally Posted by fish

i always thought it was spelled shuksan

What's funny is even the folks at Chair 9 got that same typo on their dinner menu

**Haphaz** · 03-16-2011, 02:40 AM

Can somebody provide pics/video or just some insight into the '98/'99 slide everyone is talking about. I did a quick google and nothing has come up, I also am thinking about taking some avy courses/ getting in the BC scene and I just want to do what I can to be more informed...

**UPGRAYEDD_2505** · 03-16-2011, 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by Haphaz

Can somebody provide pics/video or just some insight into the '98/'99 slide everyone is talking about. I did a quick google and nothing has come up, I also am thinking about taking some avy courses/ getting in the BC scene and I just want to do what I can to be more informed...

Scroll down to the accident summary for 2/14/1999 and click on the link. The report has photos at the end.
http://www.nwac.us/accidents/

**LeeLau** · 03-16-2011, 08:28 AM

http://www.nwac.us/media/uploads/doc..._2-14-1999.pdf

**Haphaz** · 03-16-2011, 09:55 AM

Thanks guys!

**grrrr** · 03-16-2011, 10:00 AM

Sometimes you are funny, sometimes you just an ass.

19" in 24 hours
16" in 24 hours
19" in 24 hours

I'm sure the last three days have been OUTSTANDING for photos.

**Gunder** · 03-16-2011, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

AND NO FUCKING PHOTOS! HOLY SHIT! YOU ARE FUCKING AWESOME!

Hey fucktard, there is no pics yet for a reason. And trust me if it was possible to get shots I would have them as I am pretty damn good at low light pics. Unlike whereever your from, we get a shit ton of snow. More so than you could imagine, and it has been doing what it always does here. Snowing.

I did go try to take a look at the slide today. I could not see jack shit on the arm. ZERO Vis.

I rolled down to look at the debire field tho.

In 98-99 it filled the "gully" in Oye to the top and mounded 20~40 feet over. This looks like it was a combo of 2 slides. First one ripped, then either a second slide or the sympathetic releases pushed that mass out of the valley then farther down then I have ever seen. The left hand side of the gully that many use to traverse out, as they feal is safer, is actually now LOWER than the gully its self.

Where everyone hangs out at the bottom of oye to wait for friends before re-entering the ski area is burried under 40 feet of debre. The debried pushed farther down hill from there, filling in the water fall zone, so fucking high that there is debrie at least 20 feet above the chair 8 groomer.

Folks we are talking about a MASSIVE debrie zone. Well over 100 feet deep in spots. There is signs of old growth in the debrie.

I was at Baker in 98-99 and have too good of a memory of the Valentines day slide.... .in fact I am still scared every day because of it. I have seen several extremly large slides in there since, but fuck, nothing, and I meen NOTHING compares to this debrie zone. Trust me, its way bigger than any slide you could imagaine.

Looks like a better chance of vis tomorrow, so I am going to try to get some shots of the fractures, but we have had close to 6 feet of snow since it ripped, so a good chunk is likely to be burried allready.