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People who bring avy gear, and know how to use it and no one is dead! Thank God for that. Although it probably wasn't the smartest idea to be going up in avy terrain right now, they knew what to do and are all alive.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...65/detail.html
CAIC report
glad all involved will get to ski another day.
Why were all three caught in the slide?
I pulled into trail head yesterday just as the Flight for Life helicopter was taking the man out. On the way there we were discussing the avalanche danger and rise in temperature and decided we were not going near anything that could slide and would just do an easy tour. Needless to say the girl friend got very worked up when she saw the helicopter and SAR team.
We had a good tour with in the same general area of the slide and were able to be very safe the whole time. What got me really worked up was despite someone just being pulled out of the snow I saw people carrying on with complete disregard for the obvious hazards that existed.
I read the report this morning and do not agree with it's ending comments at all. This doesn't sound at all to me like a case of bad luck. They were climbing a slide path on a day that the avalanche danger was rated considerable for the aspect they were on.
Just to add to this the definition for considerable is that Human triggered avalanches are likely (occuring > 50% of the time) and natural triggered avalanches are possible (occuring < 50% of the time). So if you go out when the danger is considerable it means there's up to a 49% chance that you could get caught in a natural avalanche. Being in a runout zone in those conditions and getting caught isn't "bad luck", unless losing one hand of blackjack can be considered bad luck. Most people would consider it pretty normal luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lurch
Sure is nice to hear they all survived. Serious stuff with those injuries!