boardman
12-20-2006, 01:12 PM
Well, having just taken the Avy 1 course this past weekend, I found many of the facts of the story below pretty telling.
I first saw the story on the Weather Channel last night. They interviewed the survivor's brother, who mentioned that they had witnessed slides "below them" earlier, but they thought they were in an okay spot. The article below notes that Avy Danger was HIGH! And nobody had beacons. I just couldn't help but thinking of this in terms of the Avy 1 training this past weekend. Anyway, you'll see from the article that the survivor was EXTREMELY lucky, having been buried 6 feet deep, without a beacon, found by probes only! (for the avy-trained, you no doubt know that the chances of survival if you're more than a meter deep are very slim; and a probe-only search narrows the chances even more considerably). During the interview on TWC, the brother stated that he couldn't believe how heavy the snow was; that he could only shovel for 1-2 minutes before his arm felt like it would fall off. He said that it not for the fact that they had multiple people to take turns digging, it would have been all over for his brother.
Here's the story from the Jackson Hole Daily News:
Slide kills snowmobiler in Salt River Range
December 19, 2006
A snowmobiler died in an avalanche Saturday in Lincoln County in what might be one of the first avalanche deaths in the U.S. this season.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center reported a large slide buried two snowmobilers high-marking on an east aspect at 9,500 feet in the Murphy Creek area of the Salt River Range. Neither person was wearing an avalanche transceiver, the avalanche center reported, but witnesses were able to probe for and resuscitate one victim who was buried 6 feet deep.
The person who died was buried in 8 to 10 feet of snow.
The victim’s name and other details were not immediately available, and attempts to contact Lincoln County officials were unsuccessful Sunday.
The avalanche center had listed the hazard for the area on Saturday as high, meaning mostly unstable snow exists on a variety of aspects and slope angles, natural avalanches are likely, and travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.
According to today’s western Wyoming advisory, the general hazard will be considerable. The avalanche center reports dangerous slabs exist up to 5 feet in depth that continue to be very susceptible to human triggers on a variety of aspects above 7,500 feet.
“Don’t be lured by the tracks of individuals willing to accept a high level of risk,” the advisory says. “Current conditions require that each party make their own hazard evaluations and make conservative decisions based on those findings.”
edited to add: for more avy info on that area, check www.jhavalanche.org , a great site with a lot of fantastic information. you can check the archived advisories for before and since this accident (avy danger was and remains "considerable" above 9,000 feet).
I first saw the story on the Weather Channel last night. They interviewed the survivor's brother, who mentioned that they had witnessed slides "below them" earlier, but they thought they were in an okay spot. The article below notes that Avy Danger was HIGH! And nobody had beacons. I just couldn't help but thinking of this in terms of the Avy 1 training this past weekend. Anyway, you'll see from the article that the survivor was EXTREMELY lucky, having been buried 6 feet deep, without a beacon, found by probes only! (for the avy-trained, you no doubt know that the chances of survival if you're more than a meter deep are very slim; and a probe-only search narrows the chances even more considerably). During the interview on TWC, the brother stated that he couldn't believe how heavy the snow was; that he could only shovel for 1-2 minutes before his arm felt like it would fall off. He said that it not for the fact that they had multiple people to take turns digging, it would have been all over for his brother.
Here's the story from the Jackson Hole Daily News:
Slide kills snowmobiler in Salt River Range
December 19, 2006
A snowmobiler died in an avalanche Saturday in Lincoln County in what might be one of the first avalanche deaths in the U.S. this season.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center reported a large slide buried two snowmobilers high-marking on an east aspect at 9,500 feet in the Murphy Creek area of the Salt River Range. Neither person was wearing an avalanche transceiver, the avalanche center reported, but witnesses were able to probe for and resuscitate one victim who was buried 6 feet deep.
The person who died was buried in 8 to 10 feet of snow.
The victim’s name and other details were not immediately available, and attempts to contact Lincoln County officials were unsuccessful Sunday.
The avalanche center had listed the hazard for the area on Saturday as high, meaning mostly unstable snow exists on a variety of aspects and slope angles, natural avalanches are likely, and travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended.
According to today’s western Wyoming advisory, the general hazard will be considerable. The avalanche center reports dangerous slabs exist up to 5 feet in depth that continue to be very susceptible to human triggers on a variety of aspects above 7,500 feet.
“Don’t be lured by the tracks of individuals willing to accept a high level of risk,” the advisory says. “Current conditions require that each party make their own hazard evaluations and make conservative decisions based on those findings.”
edited to add: for more avy info on that area, check www.jhavalanche.org , a great site with a lot of fantastic information. you can check the archived advisories for before and since this accident (avy danger was and remains "considerable" above 9,000 feet).