NE Roll Call 18/19

[ticketchecker]

Loaf may not make it until the planned May 5th closing. The season is running down the access road this week

[Peruvian]

I may be back down in tiny town from CV by then

Thinking of checking this out after dinner. Not quite sure when I’m going to be in town yet.

https://www.portlandhouseofmusic.com...g-band-of-fun/

PM me if you are interested.

[anotherVTskibum]

Another beautiful day on the Rockpile.

It seemed like it might burn off, it started to lift... And nope.

Ah, well, Hillman's skied pretty well. Sherbie is getting a bit rugged, I'm guessing at least the bottom closure will be in play by this weekend (if not sooner). Being on a relatively unscathed pair of skis, I walked about five or six times, but I was able to make it to the parking lot with a little bit of brook-hugging sketchiness at the very bottom.

If it freezes it tonight and gets back to an overnight freeze, daytime thaw pattern, the stuff up high should be good skiing for a while. Sherbie might have done too much bleeding already to hold together, even with cooler overnight temps.

TRT had two patches that were long and muddy enough for me to take my skis off but otherwise was entirely skinnable.

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[Todd Zander]

thinking of killington thursday, totalling 2 days for the season. kids amirite

[JongDoe]

As I thought, the woods are bone dry, get some!


Attachment 279721

I don't mountain bike, but that looks like a kick ass bike.

[jhyatt]

Another beautiful day on the Rockpile.

It seemed like it might burn off, it started to lift... And nope.

Ah, well, Hillman's skied pretty well. Sherbie is getting a bit rugged, I'm guessing at least the bottom closure will be in play by this weekend (if not sooner). Being on a relatively unscathed pair of skis, I walked about five or six times, but I was able to make it to the parking lot with a little bit of brook-hugging sketchiness at the very bottom.

If it freezes it tonight and gets back to an overnight freeze, daytime thaw pattern, the stuff up high should be good skiing for a while. Sherbie might have done too much bleeding already to hold together, even with cooler overnight temps.

TRT had two patches that were long and muddy enough for me to take my skis off but otherwise was entirely skinnable.

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I hope it's still skinnable a week from today...

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[Goniff]

Clear blue skies above Jay today. We could see Cannon from the top but no rockpile as it was in the clouds. Southern aspects on Jay burned out but still deep snow most everywhere else.

[robrox]

Gulf of Slides Ski Trail is getting soggy down low. The muddy sections will be evident in a few days. Already the two low stream crossings are open water, a bit deep on the first one.

Sherby is just about toast. Big bare sections. The rope by the top crossover will appear shortly. Snow was soft today but not very grabby. TRT will last a while, but we be walking most of the way down before the end of this w/e

[powbmps]

48, gray and rainy at my house. Killington was a different story.





So nice, but melting fast.

[Doremite]

Somebody went for an icy swim below the icefall? Self extracted. Lucky.

https://www.instagram.com/mwacenter/...d=z5s4lwzo9gd3

This is crazy. Lucky to walk away. Seems like an odd place to be unless he lost his line or was actually attempting to air over the crevasses and was a full send fail.....

[jackstraw]

Yeah, very odd how he ended up where he did.

[Dexter Rutecki]

I was thinking he had bootpacked up and was trying to do something up there? Just getting as high as he could and didn't realize what he was trying to stand on, or somehow just picked that spot to put on skis or something? No idea, I am wondering how it happened, too.

[train07]

I was thinking he had bootpacked up and was trying to do something up there? Just getting as high as he could and didn't realize what he was trying to stand on, or somehow just picked that spot to put on skis or something? No idea, I am wondering how it happened, too.

having done some stupid shit, a moth to the rushing water (do I have that wrong?) I can see that happening....
the only write up so far (official detailed account I could not find) says that he is an experienced backcountry guy..


Edit to add I just found this:
https://www.mountwashingtonavalanche...aterfall-hole/

[Doremite]

Reads to me the crew was intentionally picking out some scary lines and he fell in the wrong spot. That had to be terrifying.

[m2711c]

bizarre... i wonder how far he traveled underground?


“At 2:18 pm, after 20 minutes out of view to the rescuers, the subject climbed out of a different hole in the snow and slid down to the rescue party below him in the slope. He had lost his skis, poles, and pack.”

[Dexter Rutecki]

So my guess was completely wrong--I guess what happened is even worse. Now I'd like to know how he fell over the headwall--a little difficult for me to imagine how that happens, but I guess shit goes wrong all the time. Bad enough to go over it unintentionally, but to end up in the drink...I guess if it's true they were scoping lines then maybe he just lost an edge somehow. Still, looking at the photo you have to wonder what they were planning on skiing from right above where he apparently fell.

Very lucky, unlucky guy.

edit: OK, so I can see he could have been planning on hitting something pretty skiable from right above there, I guess I've just never felt good about the idea of getting sendy in there. Bad luck to fall, I guess.

[Vt-Freeheel]

I don't mountain bike, but that looks like a kick ass bike.

Thanks, it's fun to ride for sure.


I have to wonder if that guy that fell in, though seemingly well equipped, really read the avi bulletin and thought about what they were doing. For several days they had been showing the big blowout picture and warning about holes, crevasses ect. This time of the year I wouldn't be anywhere near The Lip. Shame the area has been above freezing for a week, really fucks everything up.


Not German Flats, but close, across the Access Rd. from the Sugarbush Inn yesterday.





Currently 42` and windy bob, was 55` at 6:30am

[robrox]

bizarre... i wonder how far he traveled underground?


“At 2:18 pm, after 20 minutes out of view to the rescuers, the subject climbed out of a different hole in the snow and slid down to the rescue party below him in the slope. He had lost his skis, poles, and pack.”

The lucky survivor may be able to tell us that.

Here's the MWAC report of the 2012 hiker incident:

4/1/2012 Tuckerman Ravine–Crevasse fall fatality


At approximately 3:45pm, Norman Priebatsch was hiking with his son and two others when he fell on steep icy terrain. The group members reported that he fell over a rock band and began sliding downhill. The group received no response to their shouts as the victim slid downhill, and the victim was not attempting to stop his fall at the time. He slid into an open crevasse in the lower portion of the Bowl, below the Lip, in the vicinity of the “Open Book” area. The other members of the group immediately went to the edge of the crevasse, but could not make contact with the victim. One member, along with one bystander who was not part of the group, quickly went to the AMC caretakers’ cabin at Hermit Lake to report the accident.

Circles in the Lip area mark the approximate location from which the victim fell and the location of the open crevasse at the top of the Open Book.
USFS Snow Rangers were notified of the accident shortly after 4pm. While the Snow Rangers made their way to Pinkham Notch, the AMC caretaker and other bystanders went to the ravine to gather more information and began preparing for the rescue effort. In addition to the USFS Snow Rangers, assistance was requested from Mountain Rescue Service of North Conway and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue of Gorham. The caretaker from the Harvard Mountaineering Club cabin also assisted at the scene, while the AMC staff at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and the Mt. Washington Observatory provided organizational support and spot weather forecasts.
USFS Snow Rangers established two anchors for use in a technical rope rescue system. One Snow Ranger was lowered into the crevasse to a depth of about 40 feet. From this point, he could clearly see another 40 feet down. As the slope angle decreased, the crevasse narrowed to about 4 feet in diameter. There was no sign of the missing hiker in the area that could be seen. Due to the objective hazards involved in descending into the confined space, the decision was made to not descend farther into the crevasse. The Snow Ranger was raised back to the surface and rescue efforts were suspended for the night. Snow Rangers returned to the site the following day, but again the decision was made not to descend into the crevasse due to the hazards involved with such a recovery effort.
In the weeks following April 1st, Snow Rangers continued to monitor conditions in the area. Numerous attempts were made to visually check the crevasse, but further descents into the crevasse were not safely possible. On May 20th, Snow Rangers were able to safely descend underneath the snow using an access point located below and to the side of the waterfall. Using this new entry point, the victim was visible approximately 90 feet from the opening, or 125 feet below the original crevasse opening. That evening, plans were formed to recover the victim from the crevasse the following morning. On Monday morning, May 21st, the victim was recovered by a team of four Snow Rangers, with assistance from Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue and the Appalachian Mountain Club caretaker

Analysis

Earlier in the day on April 1st, two Snow Rangers had climbed through the Lip area, with the intention to assess and better understand the extent and severity of the crevasse hazard. They found crevasses to be very large and deep, though the magnitude of the hazard was not easily visible from above. They specifically looked into the opening that the victim later fell into. Climbing through the Lip, they also noted that the snow conditions that day were very hard and icy. These conditions and the Snow Rangers’ assessment were not unexpected. The avalanche advisory from that morning stated, “With the frozen surfaces comes the potential for very dangerous sliding falls. Every year we see numerous people climbing very steep and icy slopes (e.g. the Lip) without an ice axe and crampons…even very experienced mountaineers with all the right equipment would still have a very difficult time self-arresting under the current conditions on some slopes in Tuckerman, so play it safe.” It continued, “Climb up what you plan to descend. This gives you an opportunity to check for hazards such as crevasses at a leisurely pace.”
As mentioned in the advisory, having equipment is not a guarantee of safety. Down-climbing this route in these conditions is a very difficult endeavor; to do so safely would likely require facing into the slope and front-pointing one’s way down. The fact that three of the four group members were able to safely descend the Lip on this day is remarkable. None in the group were wearing winter mountaineering boots, no one besides the victim was wearing crampons, and though they did have ski poles, they were not carrying ice axes. In this very unfortunate accident, it would be an over-simplification to blame the lack of an ice axe as the primary cause of the accident, but this could be considered one contributing factor.
The Mount Washington Avalanche Center often recommends springtime visitors hike up what they plan to descend. We make this recommendation to backcountry visitors regardless of their level of experience. Every season brings similar hazards of crevasses, undermined snow, icefall, etc., but throughout each season the location, severity, and extent of the hazards does change. In this particular situation, the party had ascended a different route than they descended, so they did not have the opportunity to assess the extent of the crevasses before descending. When Snow Rangers were checking the conditions earlier on the day of the accident, it was using roped climbing techniques and utilizing an avalanche probe to locate, evaluate, and avoid crevasses. Despite this technique, one Snow Ranger inadvertently broke through a snow bridge and nearly fell downslope. If this had happened, the rope safety system as mitigation would have prevented a long sliding fall. This roped and probing technique is rarely used by spring visitors to Mt. Washington, even though it would be considered standard practice for mountaineers in other glaciated mountain ranges.
Each visitor, according to his or her experience and skill set, should be prepared for the current conditions. It is important to understand that what may be a reasonable level of risk for one person may not be the same for another, and that each person or group is responsible for deciding when, where, and how to travel. It is also important to understand that no person begins his or her life with mountaineering experience. There is no better way to learn safe mountain travel than through the actual experience of traveling in the mountains. It is imperative to honestly evaluate one’s own experience, skill, and tolerance for risk.

Jeff Lane was that ranger initially lowered in after Priebatsch. He was a member of the recovery team, I recall that he found Priebatsch's body. Fairly grim duty.

[Dexter Rutecki]

I am sure.

So maybe something he was on up above gave way and that's when he went over the ice fall and landed where did.

[jackstraw]

Edit to add I just found this:
https://www.mountwashingtonavalanche...aterfall-hole/

Not a good time.

[biggins]

Cool afternoon light today.




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[Bottleman]

Hoping for a break in the weather.

[Bottleman]

Gentrified or not they still make a mean chicken cheese steak.

[Goniff]

Sun's out and BBQ is fired up.

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[biggins]

Saturday is starting to look pretty grim, eh? Wish I could’a been out there today.


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