3 Caught, 1 Still Missing, Marble, CO

[Bunion 2020]

Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
Because it shows their risk tolerance and decision making on what was supposed to be a scouting trip.

I gotta ask, have you ever been in that drainage?

My takeaway on this incident is that they never seemed to have a descent plan. Getting to the top was the loose objective but getting down doesn't seem to have a discussion. Each party member probably were not ok with that but the mountain drew them in. Seen this before with climbers/hikers on 14ers.com but not so much with Backcountry skiers.

McCammon would call that a heuristic trap, he would be right. Tragic but it happens and good observation BTW.

[powdork]

I gotta ask, have you ever been in that drainage?



McCammon would call that a heuristic trap, he would be right. Tragic but it happens and good observation BTW.

Never been in that drainage. But it is an obvious slide path. It reminds me a lot of the screw on Tallac, which is another obvious but rather low angle slide path that some locals consider as a storm day option (video from old mag seanhav).
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp3T3oUgK7-/

I'm not necessarily saying choosing that path shows they're crazy. But it did ramp up the risk a little and they were rewarded for it up to that point.