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02-14-2017, 07:46 PM #1
Flat Tops Wilderness Slide/1st CO Fatality
Sad news, 2 caught, 1 killed near West Lost Lake in northern Flat Tops Wilderness Area west of Toponas, CO. Not many details so far.
http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ac...=631&accfm=rep
http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2...ffs-reservoir/
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02-15-2017, 08:12 AM #2
That buried surface hoar layer is so bad
Last edited by simple; 02-15-2017 at 11:30 AM.
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02-15-2017, 12:41 PM #3
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02-15-2017, 01:11 PM #4guy who skis
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Yeah, not much detail yet. Though in the photo of Searle, it looks like he's wearing a Float airbag.
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02-15-2017, 01:17 PM #5
Were they in the Wilderness Area?
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02-15-2017, 01:26 PM #6
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02-15-2017, 01:44 PM #7
I think you meant 10,500', but even that isn't accurate - Sheriff's Reservoir, in the news report, is at the edge of the wilderness boundary at 9,700' with a road and a developed campground, and there are peaks over 10,500' nearby that aren't in the wilderness area.
However, West Lost Lake as mentioned in the CAIC report is definitely in the wilderness area.
Edit: Steamboat Pilot posted this as the accident location on Facebook. This is absolutely inside the wilderness area.
Last edited by adrenalated; 02-15-2017 at 03:04 PM.
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02-15-2017, 10:01 PM #8Registered User
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Read couple miles south of Vaughn Lake from other sources?
But yeah, lots of thinking they were in wilderness?
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02-15-2017, 11:02 PM #9
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02-16-2017, 12:18 AM #10
I know that area well. Definitely designated wilderness. Not to be crass, but cowboy up:
http://www.vaildaily.com/news/friend...lanche-victim/
"U.S. Forest Service and Search and Rescue officials confirmed Wednesday that Christensen and Searle had been riding in a wilderness area, where motorized vehicles are prohibited."Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague
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02-17-2017, 05:12 PM #11
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02-24-2017, 06:09 PM #12
CAIC Final Report is up: http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ac...inv&acc_id=631
Lots of stuff to take note of. Survivor's airbag didn't inflate?
Deceased had an airbag but no beacon? Did he try and fail to deploy his bag as well?
Sounds hair trigger- 3 slides in a short amount of time...
33 degree slope
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02-24-2017, 08:28 PM #13Registered User
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Damn! Wondered if they were gonna write a full report. Can now understand how it took awhile.
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02-24-2017, 10:28 PM #14
friend of a friend (never met him)... six kids... weird and shitty situation
Originally Posted by blurred
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02-26-2017, 05:51 PM #15
Thought this was interesting:
We observed three snow profiles in the area, one in the crown of the avalanche. In all three profiles the surface hoar crystals were laying down, and difficult to see in the pit wall. In Extended Column Tests the crack propagated across the column on tap number 26 and 28. We had one test that did not produce a propagating crack.When life gives you haters, make haterade.
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02-27-2017, 11:46 AM #16guy who skis
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Sounds like things were touchy:
Rider 2 was worried about the length of time that Rider 1 was missing and decided he needed to get help. He hiked uphill and dug out his bike, which was buried with part of the ski sticking out. He rode towards the top of the slope, parking his bike just below the crown about 15 feet into the south flank of the avalanche. He walked up to the ridgeline and searched for a cell phone signal to send a message, but was unsuccessful. He walked downhill towards his bike, but it was no longer where he left it. A third avalanche released while he was out of sight, washing his bike downhill. Part of his bike was sticking out of the debris. He descended the slope on the bed surface and retrieved the machine. He rode back to the meadow below the slope, then north and up to a higher portion of the same north/south running ridgeline. There he got a weak cell phone signal and sent a text message with a rough location and asking for help.
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02-27-2017, 03:54 PM #17
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02-27-2017, 03:55 PM #18
Not that surprising... seen plenty of laid down SH around that doesn't talk back easily... and I'd certainly not expect it to be standing up in a FLP even if it was up before the slide.
More interesting that they both had airbags, neither deployed (one was certainly attempted)... and they didn't perform a trailhead check clearly...
Oh man reading a news article, there are a gaggle of buffoons screaming for someone to prosecute the survivor and the family of the decesased for brapping in W... wtf is wrong with people?Originally Posted by blurred
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02-27-2017, 03:57 PM #19
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02-27-2017, 04:17 PM #20
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02-27-2017, 04:19 PM #21
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02-27-2017, 04:33 PM #22
I do not know when the site visit was. Apparently the report was put out 9 days after the incident. it seems possible the warm temps could of affected the test results if done at a later date.
off your knees Louie
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02-27-2017, 04:36 PM #23
Same 1/19 SH layer as the Flat Tops slide, CBAC observation on 1/26: "The usual bag of tricks aren’t working. No collapsing or cracking observed on low angle terrain, stability tests weren’t concerning, yet every slope we touched steeper than 33 degrees avalanched on surface hoar about 15-20″ deep"
http://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/ob...p?obs_id=44937
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02-27-2017, 04:37 PM #24
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02-27-2017, 04:45 PM #25
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