Avalanche Death Between LCC and BCC Today? 1-28-12 / RIP Alx88

[PowerWhore7]

This is fucking crazy, RIP to this young soul and my thoughts go out to his family. Being that this is my first full winter in the BC, I ‘m pretty shook up over all the death and mayhem this year. Not sure if most winter’s in the BC are like this or if becoming addicted to TGR this year has just shed light on all on these horrific avalanche deaths.

This jong says please be safe everyone, even though I don’t know any of you, it some how still feels personal.

[SkiFaxon]

RIP. Vibes to friends and family.

[Snakeboy]

Sucks...RIP

[tone capone]

RIP dude, I'll miss your stoke, I'm sure others will miss much more.

Condolences to friends and family.

[Trackhead]

This is fucking crazy, RIP to this young soul and my thoughts go out to his family. Being that this is my first full winter in the BC, I ‘m pretty shook up over all the death and mayhem this year. Not sure if most winter’s in the BC are like this or if becoming addicted to TGR this year has just shed light on all on these horrific avalanche deaths.

This stuff happens every year, to experienced, inexperienced, and everyone in between. Nobody is immune to it.

[mrkristofo]

This stuff happens every year, to experienced, inexperienced, and everyone in between. Nobody is immune to it.

I had the kid in my class a couple of years ago. He knew his stuff...so many questions. Truly in shock right now. So sad. RIP.

[Ski to Be]

Too many deaths this year. He posted some amazing stoke. Condolences to those who knew him.

[Dickeymotto]

Slept in this morning, didn't get on the web until the afternoon, but heard about this from my fiance's mom (this made the news in CT). Got on TGR hoping it wasn't a mag. Fuck. So sorry to everyone who knew him. If any SLC mags who were friends with Alecs need anything, feel free to PM me. Such sad news.

[skiski]

This is fucking crazy, RIP to this young soul and my thoughts go out to his family. Being that this is my first full winter in the BC, I ‘m pretty shook up over all the death and mayhem this year. Not sure if most winter’s in the BC are like this or if becoming addicted to TGR this year has just shed light on all on these horrific avalanche deaths.

This jong says please be safe everyone, even though I don’t know any of you, it some how still feels personal.

The internet makes it more likely that you figure out that someone you know knows the deceased. However, if you keep backcountry skiing, you'll probably hear of an average of one death per year or every other year where someone you know knows the victim. And, occassionally it will be someone you actually know. And, sometime it might be someone in your party. Try to prevent that. However, no matter how hard you try, you will make mistakes. When that happens, the only thing that separates victims from those who had a scare from those who had a great day is sheer luck. But the same thing goes for driving on the interstate.

Anyway, I came here to say rest in peace. Sounds like Mr. Barton loved to ride, and that makes him okay in my book.

[getoutside]

^^ vibes to alecs family. stoke will be missed. hate these threads.

[powder11]

This is fucking crazy, RIP to this young soul and my thoughts go out to his family. Being that this is my first full winter in the BC, I ‘m pretty shook up over all the death and mayhem this year. Not sure if most winter’s in the BC are like this or if becoming addicted to TGR this year has just shed light on all on these horrific avalanche deaths.

This jong says please be safe everyone, even though I don’t know any of you, it some how still feels personal.

When you stick your head in the lions mouth, don't be surprised when he bites it off! Stuff like this should be a harsh reminder to us all that it can be a dangerous/deadly game we are playing. We all need to keep our eye on the ball to make sure incedences like this are few and far between. Read up on your local avie bulletin and don't go if the danger is too high. I love ripping pow, but it ain't worth dying over. Play it safe!

RIP Alex

[misfit toy]

Tread lightly snow children! master mabe looking 4 new groomers. YEP great new tar..CAREFUL

[stuckathuntermtn]

Ah shit. Rip. That sucks. Condolences to everyone involved. At least ksl didn't call them "extreme" skiers, even if they have no idea how a tranceiver is different than a spot.
Again, vibes to all the mags and family who knew him.

Sent from my DROID2

[fantastic_damage]

Damn, saw the chopper up the canyon there yesterday afternoon.
Sucks to hear that.
RIP.

[baron]

R I P .best wishes to friends ,family....but, captain hindsight should be all over this one;hiked a slide zone!? to access an avalanche chute?!

[SeldomScene]

This is awful, tragic and was completely preventable...the message is pretty simple folks, the snow pack rules and is telling us all to back the fuck off...the close call in days today says it all...skill, experience, strength etc...these things will bite your ass! Weakest snowpack I've seen in over 20 years bombing the piss out of it in the Wasatch. One more will be way too many!! Stay safe out there

[#######]

Baron...







Please shut the FUCK UP with your 20/20, captain hindsight bullshit.

[Mark H]

Alecs we shared so many unforgettable adventures. Whenever things got tough I could always count on you to rise to the occassion with a valiant effort. More importantly, you knew how to care for your friends and make them feel truly appreciated. We honor your legacy. We love you.

[ripALX]

Copy and Paste from the wasatch conditions thread:

I was one of the two people with Alecs, a top notch dude, and a great rider. I'm only here to try to pass on what I learned from his terribly untimely death, because that's what I would want if it were me. Right or wrong, I'm posting anonymously because I think it will help keep it to the point, which is to learn as much as we can. I'll try to keep it to the objective lessons learned, in hopes of helping others, and I'll post anything else and expound as his family wishes. If anyone finds this inappropriate or offensive, please let me know and I will take it down or change it accordingly. I should probably take more time to refine this, but some of these lessons are pertinent to the current conditions. I know everyone here knows all of this, but I certainly need to hear it again. I'm typing these out the same way i'm saying them to myself, so it's just me that I'm being angry and stern with, not you.

The basics:
-Know snow. Take formal classes as well as reading books and learning from partners. Apply the knowledge liberally and often.

-Be very comfortable with your rescue gear at the very minimum. You should be an expert with it. Practice with scenarios as close to real life as you can possibly make them.

-Bring your cell phone, every time.

-Beacon. Shovel. Probe. Double, triple, quadruple, and then have your partner check that you have them, in working order, every time.

-Put new batteries in your beacon, right now. They're too cheap to do otherwise.

-Wear a helmet. No excuses.

-Know CPR/ First Aid, preferably WFR/OEC/EMT or higher, it's invaluable to be comfortable with those skills.


The decision making:
-Understand that hard slabs don't necessarily give the obvious warnings. Numerous pole stabs felt stable. We heard nor saw nor felt signs of collapsing or cracking in the snowpack. There was no significant new snow in the last day. There was some windloading which we had talked about, but it seemed like we were on a windward slope, if there was any wind effect. The temperature was on the rise, but it didn't seem out of the ordinary, and the sun was not on the slope. There were plenty of other slides previously, but few on our chosen aspect, and overall activity seemed to be slowing. I know this is all subjective, but the snowpack felt and seemed OK. It was obviously not. This is no excuse for not taking the overall weak snowpack into account, but that's what happened. You can't rely on only the "red flags" with hard slabs.

-Understand that you will, or already have, likely skied on a hard slab and gotten lucky that it was just stable enough, or you didn't find the sweet spot. Raise your index of suspicion accordingly.

-Dig a (deep) pit in unusual conditions like these. Even though they're highly condition and area specific, it might be the only thing that tips you off.

-Make sure everyone is informed about the terrain, as well as avy conditions, and that all decisions are made as a group, with each individual informed. Make it a "time out" or whatever it takes.

-Speak up, even if you're comfortable with the decisions being made, if you're not certain what kind of terrain you're getting into, ASK!

-Don't be a back seater, even if you're inexperienced, or new to the area, SPEAK UP!

-Don't let the presence of an "expert" or person you trust allow you to drop your guard. To be clear, the fault here lies completely with the person/group that allows it to let their guard down. Don't ever think you're an expert.

-Know the heuristic traps (1st bluebird day, expert, etc)



Enormous thanks to the UAC for the extraordinary, nonjudgemental investigation. I'm eternally grateful to Alta Ski Patrol, Wasatch Powderbird Guides, and the rest of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue for instantly dropping everything to come to the rescue, and going above and beyond in making sure we were safe and well taken care of.

It's sad, but these circumstances are the proverbial mouse trap, and seem to play themselves out all too often. Slide activity slows down, people "get away" with stuff and the little voice of reason on your shoulder quits talking in your ear. The sun comes out, and you make one ill decision that changes everything.

Hard to say it better than that.

Shitty snowpack structure is a shitty snowpack structure and that trumps everything else for me...

Yes.

Found some pretty bomber snow that's starting to heal up nicely but also noted lingering deep instability with stout slabs over the top. Hard to trigger but if you hit the sweet spot...

Thing was, most slopes we checked out looked pretty good where the snow was deep. The faceting below the rain crust that most of the latest slides have been running on is now 2-4' deep, pretty hard to trigger it now where it's more deeply buried.

We didn't dig any pits, but this is spot on from my perspective.

PowderTurd flew more or less nonstop all day dropping its load on low angle garbage but in light of the sad news that's probably not all bad... the low angle, not the flying. Also saw from a distance a good sized skier triggered avi on Holy Toledo but the skier was able to get away from it to the side.

Wasatch Powderbird Guides pulled out all the stops to help mags in need. Everyone will have their own opinion, but they stopped at nothing, and were nothing less than heroic.

Sad news boys and girls, good news is that only one has occured since this last storm cycle. Don't get the leap of steep fever boys and girls, stay in those mids to lower elevations! Powder is still round those areas!

YES.

In short, listen to Alecs:

I see nothing's changed here since yesterday, including the stellar epic sick freshnass to be had. We had 5 on the slope today, still nothing. Mountain Mark (that's your new nickname) decided he better submit an ob worthy of UAC standards so we dug a pit. NE aspect at ~9,500 in BCC. 85cm total snowpack, 55cm of that was new storm snow (starting last thursday night or so). There was a tiny discrepancy within the storm, one at 25 cm. Whacked the fuck out of an extended column (that's how I was taught in my avy courses) and nothing. But who gives a fuck anyway, its dangerous out there, stay inside at all costs.

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RIP good buddy, thanks for the stoke, and a beautiful day in the mountains.

[FickleFucker]

To the internet "experts" offering their take of the situation should heed the sicktirds advice and shut the fuck up...Alecs was a fucking lion and does not deserve to be judged by lowly dogs...i'm sure everyone here at one time or another has made less than stellar decisions while in search of powder, we are all guilty of this, we have all taken chances and may never know how close we've all come.....Alecs was young and had a higher acceptable risk threshold than most of us...a trait that is admired in this community untill shit hits the fan...then all the peanut gallery weighs in, passes judgement, and stroke their own egos with condeming posts and opinions all while sitting safely behind the cool glow of their computer screens. Right or wrong our opinions on the matter are fucking worthless (my own included), self indulgent bullshit....unless you were there or involved in the investigation/rescue of course.
Alecs was blessed with more godamned charm and personality than his small stature could contain...even if you were so mad you wanted to choke him, you couldn't help but smile and let it pass with a "fucking alecs!".....a friend of ours nailed it on the head "i am a better person for having known him"
Thanks for that my friend, you have always and will continue to inspire me.

[Johnny Deep]

I never met Alecs, but his posts and sense of place always got me going.

RIP

[wstdeep]

To ripALX,

Well said, if everyone read that everytime they put on their gear it would save a few lives.

Tough tough situation for you, good luck with it, I think posting above was great step in healing the wounds. I've lost a buddy to the white monster many years ago and have also pulled a few others out to play another day. Untill you get close to that situation it is hard to really understand the retoric of practice till you puke, be ready, pay attention, react to changing conditions etc. Ultimatly being able to step back and diagnose the situation (go-nogo or a rescue) with the detachment of all emotion is the key when decisions need to be made.

Never forget but move ahead as well, good luck to you and thanks for sharing.

[skifishbum]

To the internet "experts" offering their take of the situation should heed the sicktirds advice and shut the fuck up...Alecs was a fucking lion and does not deserve to be judged by lowly dogs...i'm sure everyone here at one time or another has made less than stellar decisions while in search of powder, we are all guilty of this, we have all taken chances and may never know how close we've all come.....Alecs was young and had a higher acceptable risk threshold than most of us...a trait that is admired in this community untill shit hits the fan...then all the peanut gallery weighs in, passes judgement, and stroke their own egos with condeming posts and opinions all while sitting safely behind the cool glow of their computer screens. Right or wrong our opinions on the matter are fucking worthless (my own included), self indulgent bullshit....unless you were there or involved in the investigation/rescue of course.
Alecs was blessed with more godamned charm and personality than his small stature could contain...even if you were so mad you wanted to choke him, you couldn't help but smile and let it pass with a "fucking alecs!".....a friend of ours nailed it on the head "i am a better person for having known him"
Thanks for that my friend, you have always and will continue to inspire me.

thanks jong
he was a special dude always a smile and if you can't respect the drive and passion that may have affected decisions and led to his passing and need to pass judgement or play the acqb game
just snuggle up with captain hindsite under the covers
some one will let you know when it's safe to go out again.
shred on in peace.
The true tribe morns our loss and revels in the life that you led and keeps your memories and those who have perished in our head and hearts and souls.

[strawjack]

well, this really sucks. RIP fellow mag.


this thread is unfortunately c'd up. one of his friends should start a new one.

[bern43]

Sad to hear of this. RIP.