positive waves to all involved... here's what the CAIC had to say:
link with photos
La Plata Peak – Sawatch Range
March 20, 2004
2 hikers caught, 1 injured, 1 buried and killed
At 3:15 Saturday afternoon two climbers were caught in a small avalanche on the west side of La Plata Peak (14,361). Located about 6 miles southwest of the village of Twin Lakes (or 7 miles southeast of Independence Pass) La Plata Peak is the State's 5th highest 14,000-foot summit.
Three Colorado Springs' men using snow shoes traveled on frozen, firm snow along the NNW ridge to the summit. The men arrived at 2PM. This was about an hour later then when they had hoped to reach the top. Hoping to save time they chose to descend the west face by sitting glissade. Using their ice axes to control their speed the men found the snow on the upper slopes to be firm and crusty. Perfect for glissading. They glissaded a two sections and then traversed over to another snow-filled gully. The snow surface was still crusty but just starting to become moist.
The victim, a 22-year-old man had already descend a long ways down slope when his friend started his third glissade. This man had only gone a short distance when the snow fractured around him. He tried to self arrest but was quickly tumbling out of control in the mass of tumbling snow. A third friend, a bit further back was not caught.
When the avalanche stopped the survivor -- battered on his face and head -- was partly buried. He lost his pack in the slide but was able to dig himself free and started looking for his friend. He found some equipment -- ski pole, snow shoe, and a shovel handle -- but no friend friend. It took a while for the third man to descend the icy and rocky slope. The men searched into the evening with out success, and then started a long and arduous hike back to their car. The snow in the valley wet and cohessionless and with every step they would sink in to their knees or deeper.
Rescue
On Sunday morning the Chaffee CountySheriff's office mobilized the Chaffee County Rescue Group, Lake County Search and Rescue, and mountain rescue teams from Western State, Crested Butte, and Summit County. A Flight for Life helicopter helped to ferry rescuers to the scene.
An avalanche rescue dog from Crested Butte had numerous alerts including an alert that helped direct a probeline to the right spot. The wet snow was very dense and the surface layer had refrozen over night. Several rescuers broke their collapsible probes in the hard debris. The victim was found shortly before noon, buried 3 feet down.
Avalanche
This combination hard-slab and wet-slab avalanche triggered by the climbers was classified as HS/WS-AF-2-G. It was small-sized relative to the avalanche path. The fracture line was only 16 inches deep. The avalanche initially released in dry snow at 13,200 feet -- the surface was just starting to become wet -- but turned into a wet-snow slab avalanche at about 12,800. The avalanche fell a total of 1600 vertical feet, stopping at 11,600 feet. On its way down the wet snow entrained dirt and rocks. At its widest the avalanche was only 100 feet across, and in the gully it narrowed to as as little as 40 feet. The slope angle at the fracture line was 37 degrees. Though the mountain faces west the side of the gully where the avalanche released had a northwesterly aspect.
Comments
Snow cover in the La Plata Peak area is very low. On Saturday morning a nearby remote SNOTEL station that measures snow-water equivalent was reporting only 60% of average. At 10,000 feet only about 1 foot of snow covers the ground and at treeline snowcover is only 3 feet. The entire snowcover below treeline is composed of well developed, cohessionless depth hoar (facted, sugar-like grains). The dry conditions and warmth were and important factors in this accident.
Snow depths are about half of what one would normally find in the area. In Colorado a shallow snow cover is a weak snow cover. In shallow snow the additional weight of a person more easily affects weak layers, and also shallow snow warms and turns wet faster.
Early Saturday morning a light freeze created a thin but stout crust that supported the weight of the climbers while they travelled on snowshoes. With an early start and a north-facing ascent route the climbers would have never encounted thaw conditions. (On Sunday by mid day the north aspects were wet to treeline.)
The group reached the summit later than expected and knew the snow would be turning wet. But as they descended from the summit the snow at the highest elevations was still "firm and crusty." These conditions may have given the hikers false confidence and lured the men even lower.
The men were spread out -- vertically -- on their glissades. The victim was about "400 yards" below his friend when the second man started down. Unfortunately the lower man probably did not realize what had happened above him. If he did, he may have already been bogged down in wet snow and could not escape.
We will post more information as it becomes available.
On March 19, 1960 a climber was buried and killed in an avalanche low on the mountain after a failed attempt of the Ellingwood Ridge.
Atkins and Sawtell, 3/22/2004
