Is it just me, or are we seeing more inbound avalanches?

[Benny Profane]

I don't know. Last year Taos had a killer. This year that mountain in Idaho and just now Alpine Meadows. Just a statistical anamaly? Bunched up?

[MakersTeleMark]

You are judging by a sample of 2?

[old goat]

No one knows, because as a rule these don't get reported to the avalanche centers so no one's keeping statistics, AFAIK
I've been hearing about fatal post control slides in the North Tahoe area every few years for the 40+ years I've been skiing here.
It wouldn't shock me if they were to increase in frequency here as midwinter rain events become more common with global warming. Areas with a continental snow pack are another issue.

In order to have meaningful statistics you would have to know the total number of post control slides, not just the fatal ones that make the papers.

[Benny Profane]

You are judging by a sample of 2?

3, including Taos last year. JH had one a few years ago, that might count

[SkiBall]

They don't make em like they used to.

[frorider]

I blame rockered skis.

[UCMERIP]

http://www.nsaa.org/media/348391/ava...afety_1920.pdf

[TBS]

It's just you Benny

[MakersTeleMark]

I meant 2 years.

[Benny Profane]

It's just you Benny

Me and Sartre.

[MakersTeleMark]

I don't think, therefore, I'm Bunny.

[Angle Parking]

I've had the same thought over the last couple years.

[telefreewasatch]

Vibes, Alpine brothers.
Hard event to get past.
I know...
You all do good work.
Know that and be proud...

[Danno]

I blame rockered skis.

I blame Rob Story.

[snowaddict91]

No one knows, because as a rule these don't get reported to the avalanche centers so no one's keeping statistics, AFAIK
I've been hearing about fatal post control slides in the North Tahoe area every few years for the 40+ years I've been skiing here.
It wouldn't shock me if they were to increase in frequency here as midwinter rain events become more common with global warming. Areas with a continental snow pack are another issue.

In order to have meaningful statistics you would have to know the total number of post control slides, not just the fatal ones that make the papers.

Yup. There was a decent sized slide at Snowbird a couple years ago right under a lift. I had been out of town for a few days and happened to be riding the chair with a patroller. Said something about it and he informed me that it was open at the time and they had to run probe lines. My wife and I have both kicked off small slides in the same general part of the mountain. Close calls happen a lot more than most of us think.

[Meadow Skipper]

I wonder if the explosion of social media over the last few years has anything to do with it.

Actually, I don’t wonder - I think that’s why we’re hearing about it now.

[Benny Profane]

We can always blame snowboarders. That usually works.

[raisingarizona13]

I wonder if the explosion of social media over the last few years has anything to do with it.

Actually, I don’t wonder - I think that’s why we’re hearing about it now.

This is what I'm thinking. There's a lot of pressure to get terrain open and have a constant steady flow of sensational updates for the social media.

And as mentioned, a changing climate is going to have it's impacts on snow packs too. We are getting persistent weaknesses from buried rain crust layers here now almost every season. I can't say for sure but it seems like a new development or trend. Interestingly, it could mean more mid winter stability for the San Juans and other continental packs.

[Bunion 2020]

Social media certainly plays a role.

Funny how that NSAA press release makes it clear that in bounds slides are rare and the danger is in the Backcountry yet they rely on Avi Centers for their statistics/spokespeople.

Steep slopes covered in a material that is as tricky as snow will always be somewhat unpredictable.

[MakersTeleMark]

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/loc...ps-first-week/

Hell, we've even had a maggot buried inbounds.

That was before the social media boom, but it was posted here as kind of the start of social.

Happens way more than you think. Resorts, at least in Colorado, do not report these things and have no duty to do so. I think that's wrong, but that is a different conversation. GoPro and insta/face/tweet have largely made my quip irrelevant.

[Bunion 2020]

When I had friends forecasting in Utah they were frustrated by the ski areas and their hostility towards any reporting of inbounds slides, even those trigger by explosives during control.

It led to "A ski area in Upper Little Cottonwood Canyon triggered an avalanche" type of bullshit.

Anything more specific led to threats of denial of access to Obs and weather data and the ski areas would have preferred to leave out the Big or Little delineation.

[PNWbrit]

I don't think, therefore, I'm Bunny.

I don't think Bunny has a clue about avalanches.

[Benny Profane]

It's a weird business. One time when I was spending a few months in Summit County, I drove up to Abasin and there was a long "stain" on the East Wall that wasn't there two days before. A patroller called it the diaper stain. They triggered an avi in one of the middle chutes with the cannon the day before. And yet, you could ski right up and over it the next day. It was long and ugly, half rocks and boulders, they would have been searching for parts of skiers. So what made the East Wall safe just 24 hours later?

That's a heavy responsibility to call all clear before they allow us out there.

[Benny Profane]

I don't think Bunny has a clue about avalanches.

Oh, and you do, motherfucker? Read my above post. Or talk to patrol at Alpine Meadows about that. It's still a pretty inexact science, the way I see it.

[romeo tango]

....that mountain in Idaho ....

Silver Mountain ....
visit us sometime



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