Durrand Glacier avalanche anniversary

[old goat]

Today is the anniversary of the 2003 Durrand Glacier avalanche near Revelstoke. RIP Kathy Polucha Kessler. We think of you every time we turn the tap at Donner Lake and clean water--any water--comes out. You are greatly missed by many.

[Bunion 2020]

https://gripped.com/news/west-coast-...r-passes-away/

A much belated RIP Frank.
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vi...anche-accident

https://www.outsideonline.com/1821466/thin-white-line

[John_B]

Thanks for the links Bunion. The Baumann avalanche writeup was a good read.

[LeeLau]

https://gripped.com/news/west-coast-...r-passes-away/

A much belated RIP Frank.
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vi...anche-accident

https://www.outsideonline.com/1821466/thin-white-line

Frank was an awesome teacher and a inspirational guy. He was fun to be around and I was honoured to learn a lot from him. RIP

[old goat]

Thanks for the links Bunion. The Baumann avalanche writeup was a good read.

Annie Polucha --Kathy's sister--got grief around here for commissioning that study. Some people felt it was wrong to cast blame.

[BFD]

Annie Polucha --Kathy's sister--got grief around here for commissioning that study. Some people felt it was wrong to cast blame.

if you are friends with Rick Martin tell him hello for me. Probably around 35 years ago I used to visit tahoe, some how we hooked up. We skied Signal Peak and Silver peak when you didn't see many others out there. Probably more but those are two I can remember.

[kootenayskier]

Annie Polucha --Kathy's sister--got grief around here for commissioning that study. Some people felt it was wrong to cast blame.

No punches pulled. As devastatingly damning today as it was when it came out.

[Peyto]

Thanks for the reminder of the date - probably a good time to re-read Ken Wylie's book "Buried". As well, as a snowboarder who grew up idolizing Craig Kelly this one always stood out to me.

[John_B]

Annie Polucha --Kathy's sister--got grief around here for commissioning that study. Some people felt it was wrong to cast blame.

I can understand the initial gut reaction of why people thought that. I'm glad she did. It sure was a helluva counterpoint after reading the Outside article.

[andy m]

Thanks for the post and reminder of that tragic day. A friend and ski partner of mine, Vern Lundsford from Littleton, CO, also died in that avalanche. He left behind a wife and daughter. Vern had wanted to go to SME for years. He finally got his chance when someone dropped out of that trip, and Vern was next on the wait list.

[old goat]

if you are friends with Rick Martin tell him hello for me. Probably around 35 years ago I used to visit tahoe, some how we hooked up. We skied Signal Peak and Silver peak when you didn't see many others out there. Probably more but those are two I can remember.

I don't know him. Sorry.

Thanks for the post and reminder of that tragic day. A friend and ski partner of mine, Vern Lundsford from Littleton, CO, also died in that avalanche. He left behind a wife and daughter. Vern had wanted to go to SME for years. He finally got his chance when someone dropped out of that trip, and Vern was next on the wait list.

He probably got Kathy's husband's spot.

When I read Buried I was struck by the arrogance of Ruedi Beglinger. He wasn't interested in avalanche forecasts, didn't do any kind of snow analysis--like digging a pit--on his own. Went mainly by his instinct and the way his ski poles felt in the snow. He has continued to insist that the conditions were perfect, that his decisions were completely correct and that the avalanche shouldn't have happened. But it did.
I've never met the man. I know nothing about snow science. Maybe I'm misjudging after reading the book, which is after all written by a man who seems to have been devastated and considerably and permanently affected by the incident, so maybe he's not being fair. I don't know.