Avalanche Death 12.24.12 Donner Ski Ranch

[~mikey b]

Someone seems to have lost the plot....

[SchralphMacchio]

I wonder what incident m85a53 is talking about, if such an incident actually happened in recent history or if this is all blabber.

[mcski]

Bot says what?

[summit]

First off I live on Donner Summit.
I know I'm on the site that filmed that ridiculous avalanche video that every one thinks is so cool. Sorry Teton.... You CAUSED that avalanche with ridiculous people that decided to risk their life without the thought of others.
Thank God their were no people/houses down the mountain.
Because of one such person in the Tahoe area that decided to get to the top of a mountain and ski down it, causing an avalanche. It devastated small homes, thank God there was only one death. south lake Tahoe road 50 was shut down while they dynamited the rest of the mountain. People (including me were stuck in our cars while the snow started to fall. Thanks Strawberry residents for snowshoeing up and getting us gas for our cars...and shoveling out tailpipes for those that didn't have one. Thank you for the state store. We were hungry. Three days later,and a Kanye West sleep deprivation after 3 days I was in SLT.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

As much as you want to do the craziest adrenaline rushing thing you can think of, stop....seriously...stop, you know you are risking your life....but you're risking mine as well at the bottom of the mountain. Mother nature can be bad enough. One little person who decides to ski illegal can be deadly for others.
You can sit in prison and think of all the people you have killed.or think twice before decide to go up that mountain.

Insanity has a name :
m85a53

[~mikey b]

Even you and I can agree that measured discourse about avalanche risk etc. can be controversial AND productive. Something weird about that post.

[SchralphMacchio]

I know this is completely irrelevant to a skier-triggered avalanche inbounds within a ski area ...

but now I'm really curious about any event in recent history that actually shut down Highway 50 for 3 entire days - natural or artificially triggered - and I am being really unsuccessful with the right Google parameters. The only thing I could find was the huge landslide in April 1983, which does not sound anything like what m85a53 is talking about.

[2_1_3]

I haven't come across anything like this in my research...I do have weather maps made for all California avalanche fatalities from ~1950 to present, but those have only a date associated with them (no location, no other information).

Back on topic, the meteorology leading up to the Donner event was described in an article of The Avalanche Review on page 28:
http://www.americanavalancheassociat...April_2014.pdf

I know this is completely irrelevant to a skier-triggered avalanche inbounds within a ski area ...

but now I'm really curious about any event in recent history that actually shut down Highway 50 for 3 entire days - natural or artificially triggered - and I am being really unsuccessful with the right Google parameters. The only thing I could find was the huge landslide in April 1983, which does not sound anything like what m85a53 is talking about.

[dookeyXXX]

Stumbled upon this thread whilst researching the DSR avy and the fallout/result of the event.

What I find the most interesting (and am surprised that nobody else caught this) about m85a53's post is why the fuck was a resident of Donner Summit going home via Hwy 50?

[SchralphMacchio]

80 closes with 50 staying open fairly commonly. But then they also used to let residents onto Old 40 ...

[Meadow Skipper]

What I find the most interesting (and am surprised that nobody else caught this) about m85a53's post is why the fuck was a resident of Donner Summit going home via Hwy 50?

It’s not like that was the weirdest thing about that post.

[LightRanger]

It’s not like that was the weirdest thing about that post.

This.

[jorion]

Jesus, what a weird, depressing thread. I really hope it’s not true that he was underneath the snowcat tracks that removed the debris.

[old goat]

Stumbled upon this thread whilst researching the DSR avy and the fallout/result of the event.

What I find the most interesting (and am surprised that nobody else caught this) about m85a53's post is why the fuck was a resident of Donner Summit going home via Hwy 50?

sounds like he was talking about a fatal skier-triggered avalanche above Hwy 50 that damaged houses and closed the road for days. Does anyone remember that event? I've been around the area since 1976 and don't recall hearing about it; I'm sure it must have made the news--maybe before the internet, since a google search turns up nothing.