Slide at Abasin

**sftc** · 05-20-2005, 04:23 PM

Crazy pictures from the channel 7 heli:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/index.html
Looks like it started as a slab and then ripped all the way to dirt once it got going.

**Blurred** · 05-20-2005, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by jonpierre

yeah for sure, anyone hear from knuckledragger gary? no anwser on the phone and i know he was planning on riding today

I just talked to him on the phone, he's ok. He was up there and had his camera, he'd been filming the aftermath. I'm meeting him and Phish up on Hoosier pass in a little while.

**Below Zero** · 05-20-2005, 04:26 PM

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**iskibc** · 05-20-2005, 04:29 PM

I would call off the search too if this was still lingering above:

Almost looks like a glide slide. You can make out the moguls and all the skier tracks on the bed surface. Mind boggling.

Scary stuff.

**Woodsy** · 05-20-2005, 04:32 PM

Madre de Dios

so sad.
please think of this event and its repurcussions while bumping the thread bitching about the heat or other trivial crap.
damn.

**Mountain Junkie** · 05-20-2005, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by iskibc

I would call off the search too if this was still lingering above:

Almost looks like a glide slide. You can make out the moguls and all the skier tracks on the bed surface. Mind boggling.

Scary stuff.

I don't think thats the bed surface. Its just a displaced piece of slab that didn't go.

Woodsy, I don't think anyone was bitching about the heat. The topic came up while discussing some of the circumstances surrounding the slide.

**truth** · 05-20-2005, 04:49 PM

From what I can see this seems to have been one freak accident, one that all the forecasting and prevention in the world could not have foreseen.

Re: Glide

Could the runoff / melt caused enough rotting (SheRa's info) of the snowpack below the rollover (pic of fracture) that the top could no longer support the hanging weight of the slope? Would there have been any visible warning like in a winter glide sceario as this seems to indicate that it just ripped out? I doubt it would have gone unnnoticed if there was a fissure forming where that fracture is.

Very scary shit.

**Lane Meyer** · 05-20-2005, 04:59 PM

Holy.Fucking.Shit. Wow. Unbelieveable. That poor guy. Truly could have been any one of Co people/me five years go. So sad.

Is this precendented at a ski area anywhere in the springtime or a once-in a 1000 years combination of warm temps and bad timing??

Go, the poor guy that was killed...I am speechless. What a tragedy. I pray no one else is in there as well...

**MacDaddy** · 05-20-2005, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Mountain Junkie

I don't think thats the bed surface. Its just a displaced piece of slab that didn't go.

Woodsy, I don't think anyone was bitching about the heat. The topic came up while discussing some of the circumstances surrounding the slide.

Yo MJ, Woodsy wasnt thinkin that!
The way I see it, DDay was thinkin about that fact that he shouldnt feel so harshed that its freakin almost 90 here.

I hope that Snowbird considers their pack this weekend!!
I'm going up Sunday

**Woodsy** · 05-20-2005, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

Yo MJ, Woodsy wasnt thinkin that!
The way I see it, DDay was thinkin about that fact that he shouldnt feel so harshed that its freakin almost 90 here.

I hope that Snowbird considers their pack this weekend!!
I'm going up Sunday

actually I wasthnking how petty the whole "i hate the summer " whine was now and was bummed someone bumped it over this.
thats all.

**SIIHP** · 05-20-2005, 05:17 PM

My bro has worked there since he was a teenager. Use to do the avi control, think he still goes on rescues since he has one of the avi dogs. I been around the patrol quite a bit, most are very knowledgeable about snow conditions. So this is gonna shake em up a bit. Few years ago my bro shot one off the East Wall that ripped into the main area. Had to search and wait till every car in the lot was accounted for. But one like this... just wow.

**Phatstix** · 05-20-2005, 05:17 PM

As Bruce said in AK, " It's like taffy - when the taffy is warm the snow stretches to a point and then can't hold the force / weight. Sometimes when the taffy is frozen it is strong and ridged to a point - then it snaps."

Remember the taffy when you're doin' a daffy.

Godspeed-

**powderfarmer** · 05-20-2005, 05:28 PM

WOW, Scary stuff this week. I am off to talk with some troller friends later tonight to see what their thoughts are. My buddy up on buffalo and now this. I think I am done skiing for the year.

**skideeppow** · 05-20-2005, 05:46 PM

That is insane, those pictures are unreal. I had a friend wendy who was over there and was the last one down before it slid. She said she felt the ground move it was so powerful.
She saw the boarder go in and in order to help patrol identify who might have been involved, she identified his coat, pretty grim shit.
I am out tilll we get some colder temps, I have never seen a hard slab (i am assuming that is what it was) in 60 degree heat.

**nicojohnson1234@gmail.com** · 05-20-2005, 06:43 PM

Today's temps, in Denver, tied a record set in 54' last few weeks were cloudy and cool, now a heat wave. Heat and snow don't mix well. Down
here in the SW we are under a flood warning due to rapid snowpack loss.

**snowfire** · 05-20-2005, 07:58 PM

Scary. All patrollers were called up to help with the search at 5:30 am tomorrow. GFP and I are going... I'm kinda nervous, I really don't want to find a body. Although if there is one, or some, I hope we find them. And that's a HELL of a lot of hangfire. Scary shit, wish us luck.

I'm putting new batteries in my beacon as we speak.

I'll bring my camera along and try to get some more pics of the slide path.

Liz

**Rdy2ski** · 05-20-2005, 08:11 PM

Snowfire and GFP...careful out there. I'd be pretty anxious too. Is there an "unaccounted" for number or is this a precautionary (not sure that's the right word here) move?

Anything locally that can help?

**adam** · 05-20-2005, 08:23 PM

It feels so weird when someone dies at first. It takes a while to get a grip on what happened. The summer after 7th grade, i was in summer school, this dude that sat next to me in english, died in june in a car wreck. It was some heavy shit. We just sat there the whole day, pretty gripped. His girlfriend was there, and she was sobbing the whole time. I think his brother was driving.

JW · 05-20-2005, 08:27 PM

I was there today also and it is hard to stop thinking about it. I went over for some lunch time laps and would have certainly skied near where it fractured. Strong feelings for the guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Very sad.

**snowfire** · 05-20-2005, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by Rdy2ski

Snowfire and GFP...careful out there. I'd be pretty anxious too. Is there an "unaccounted" for number or is this a precautionary (not sure that's the right word here) move?

Anything locally that can help?

They think there may be one more. Not sure though. I guess not many people saw it.

We'll certainly be careful. Fresh batteries in the beacons and full gear.

**SIIHP** · 05-20-2005, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by snowfire

They think there may be one more. Not sure though. I guess not many people saw it.

We'll certainly be careful. Fresh batteries in the beacons and full gear.

Yeah, my bro says they think theres more there. Sheriff is staying over night checking all campers and running the plates of any cars in the parking lot.

**meatdrink9** · 05-20-2005, 09:07 PM

So sad. Hopefully nobody else is was caught. I think I'll saty home this weekend. Crazy thinking we were skiing that stuff less than a week ago.

**Mtn Man** · 05-20-2005, 09:53 PM

Best of luck out there tomorrow morning guys. Tread lightly and move swiftly. We all hope that you don't find any bodies out there, one is too much already.

B)

**H20MAN** · 05-20-2005, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by jonpierre

wow scary. hopefully no one else is hurt. almost went riding up there today, i hope gary isn't up there. anyone have more details?

It was a wierd day of riding after that. I saw a guy come down in a sled and it wasn't good, makes me think twice about where I've been and where I'm going tomorrow.