Inter-party avalanche incident 2021-12-05: Mt. Washington Left Gully

[ISL]

https://mountwashingtonavalanchecent...kerman-ravine/

I'm sad to be adding an entry to the interparty avalanche list so soon in the season. Take great care for those above and below as you travel this season, for good and bad, we're not alone out there.

A huge thank-you to everyone involved in the evacuation and heartfelt best wishes to the recovering skier; nothing about the incident sounded easy.

[Jonathan S.]

Here's are public obs from the prior day in the adjacent line:
https://mountwashingtonavalanchecent...ns/entry/5473/
https://mountwashingtonavalanchecent...ns/entry/5479/

[I've seen black diamonds!]

In my experience windslab at and above "Location of 2nd avalanche release point" is the norm in winter. I think a healthy attitude is to assume that it will either be unsafe or unenjoyable to ski above that point. If you find something different it's your luck day, but you should be expecting windslab there.

[jackstraw]

In my experience windslab at and above "Location of 2nd avalanche release point" is the norm in winter. I think a healthy attitude is to assume that it will either be unsafe or unenjoyable to ski above that point. If you find something different it's your luck day, but you should be expecting windslab there.

And the rock to the upper left of the first release is a fun little drop.

[snoqpass]

There was an incident in the Commonwealth Basin a few years ago in December on a high consequence day that a solo skier was buried and not recovered until May that I believe was triggered by another party nearby. I'm starting to feel to incidents will continue with the rapid influx of BC users who are not fully understanding avalanche education and how to apply it while traveling and using it to make decisions that reinforce skiing risky terrain and conditions. More people seem to eager to go out during storms of high intensity where in the past we would wait a day or two for things to settle. Sometimes reading trip reports on sites like TAY can be a bit mortifying to my eyes when reading peoples rationalization for skiing something that day and the way some people project their skills and abilities can be misunderstood as good decision making. I'm just thinking out loud trying to understand peoples approach to skiing around other's in the BC and how it relates to the safety of other users

[MagnificentUnicorn]

There was an incident in the Commonwealth Basin a few years ago in December on a high consequence day that a solo skier was buried and not recovered until May that I believe was triggered by another party nearby. I'm starting to feel to incidents will continue with the rapid influx of BC users who are not fully understanding avalanche education and how to apply it while traveling and using it to make decisions that reinforce skiing risky terrain and conditions. More people seem to eager to go out during storms of high intensity where in the past we would wait a day or two for things to settle. Sometimes reading trip reports on sites like TAY can be a bit mortifying to my eyes when reading peoples rationalization for skiing something that day and the way some people project their skills and abilities can be misunderstood as good decision making. I'm just thinking out loud trying to understand peoples approach to skiing around other's in the BC and how it relates to the safety of other users

I really try to avoid being around others in the bc for the reasons you elaborate. I have a friend that posts frequently on tay and sometimes his reports leave me thinking wtf? I no longer ski tour with him.


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[ISL]

The Commonwealth incident completely transformed the way I think about the backcountry (and led to the ongoing work on inter-party involvements at kendallpeak.org). From the information I've been able to turn up, it will be difficult to ever conclude with complete certainty what happened on December 19, 2015. Even the possibility that an interparty incident could have occurred, however, is more than enough for us to work to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

I share the sentiment that as party-density grows, we will continue to see more and more inter-party involvements. While I'm not actively extending the research to incorporate the 20/21 season, I'm continuing to aggregate reports of interparty incidents. I'm willing to bet real money that the number will grow (and presently crossing my fingers that today's Silver Basin incident wasn't another one).

I'm particularly keen to interface with people in Europe to begin to extend the North American analysis to that much older and more-densely-populated environment.