Tom- You are so very lucky! It's good to hear you are safe. Thanks for taking the time to share your story. Hopefully that knee and shoulder heals up quickly.
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Tom- You are so very lucky! It's good to hear you are safe. Thanks for taking the time to share your story. Hopefully that knee and shoulder heals up quickly.
Coincidentally we hiked up Chinaman's today... I looked for the slide from up top but we were in clouds and I couldn't see anything. On our way out the skies cleared enough and I managed to snap two pictures with better light. It looks big, and it looks scary. One question -- didn't the temperatures that day increase rather sharply? On the last few warm days at SSV we saw two avalanches at remote peaks triggered, apparently, by the temperature alone.
Tell me if you want the big 2048x1024 versions for your archive.
Wishing you a speedy and full recovery!
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...achmentid=5377
this one puts it in perspective:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...achmentid=5378
Crazy shit man. Glad you are able to be alive to talk about it.
good that you are not dead!
good work redskea with that assist!
As the modern world of the 21st century continues to rape the earth, imprison the populace, exploit the poor, wage wars with rhetoric that defies common sense, honor prestige garnered from political whoring and the amassing of wealth for its own sake, the mountains remain as always, lofty pinacles in the wilderness, like lights shinning through fog, beacons for those who seek what is real, true, beyond mere words, and worth dying for. Your TR's the last few years speak for themselves. Godspeed, see you in the snow.
Yes...about 25'CQuote:
Originally Posted by f2f
No - The surface layer wasn't strong enough to hold me and everything else, virtually to base was rotten from the previous day. The overnight freeze I later discoverd had been rather late...like 6am to 8am, so just the top got frozen and under was mush. Our hike up (west facing) didnt have a lot of snow depth except the ridge and was all refrozen and very stable. The east face that I was tring to ski was a lot deeper and had retaind the previous days heat I think...just not right at the very top.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trackhead
I have a dragon as an avitar because I am Welsh and the dragon is our national flag STUPID!Quote:
Originally Posted by 0BernhardFranz
Naaa some dumpster outside of Reno.Quote:
Originally Posted by coorsauce
:)
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...l_west%7E0.jpg
U Know His Steeze...
Best of luck recovering mate. That sounds terrifying. They don't call this time of the year 'April' for nothing.
nice to know that you're still with us (again). what's that, 2 down, 7 left?
It's a terrifying story, Idris. I am glad you are alive; hope the recovery goes well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idris
In terms of lessons to learn; what do you think you did wrong when it came to judgng the avy danger?
Thanks, dude. I have trouble explaining to some folks why I climb and I can say that this speaks for me...Quote:
Originally Posted by powndnstein
Tom's hat looks kinda like one of those snowy river deals from Australia, ay mate?
Geez Tom, glad to hear you're mostly in one piece. Scary stuff. Heal up fast!
Good work, Redskea.
Again,
Thanks for posting this. Especially since it is completely relevant to the current conditions we are all skiing right now. I think myself, and others, get lured into the safety of spring conditions.
Yikes! Heal up fast, Tom - there's still skiing to be done!
That's exactly what it was like at Lake Louise yesterday. Basically, the entire backside was closed except for ER6 and ER7.Quote:
Originally Posted by Idris
Cooler weather on the way later this week, so we will be dealing with a more solid snowpack.
whoa
crazy
heal up
fast
man
:( :(
oh shit. :eek:
heal up fast ++++++
Ditto. I saw wet slides run 1000 ft or greater in whistler backcountry. I'm very thankful you made it out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trackhead
Quote:
Originally Posted by Idris
over how long of a time period was this 77* F temp spike?
it looked like a point release wet slide that brought you with it. when it steped down as a slab was the bedsurface wet or dry?
Tom, All the best on a fast recovery. Was the hound out that day. If she was I'm sure she gave you a nice french kiss to speed your recovery. I'm pretty sure the day we went out Redskea pointed that route out from the coffee shop as a future adventure.
Doug
Talk about close call.
Heal fast man, and thank you for posting this. I can only imagine how diffucult it
can be to post incidents like theese.
Godspeed.
Damn, Idris, you're getting more excitement in one winter in the Rockies than I have managed in a lifetime. ;)
Heal up fast. Still plenty of season left to get back on the skis. At the very least you need to come up for Slush Cup at Sunshine and catch the drunken bikini action outside the OSL. :FIREdevil
Above the skiers left side of the couloir is a scree slope we crossed to get to the little saddle we started from. Because this was rock it had warmed quickly and had water running through it. This was running under the snow pack on the left side of the couloir.Quote:
Originally Posted by KANUTTEN
The crust on the similar aspect slope we had crossed on foot before the scree was more or less supportive, but it was a deeper pack with out the scree above it and less steep so probably getting less direct solar radiation.
The first 2 turns on skis (on the vid clip) the crust was supportive then failed (I think as he got over the wetter snow.)
It was a point release, to base, about 50cm walls at the top, maybe 75 lower.
The base was wet rock at the top, rock and ice crust lower.
Only about 10% of the snow in the top basin went leaving a lot of hangfire.
I didn't take the effect of the water running out of the scree under the snow pack into consideration. (It wasn't really visable but we were aware of it when crossing the scree.)
I was thinking the couloir would have moist snow with a mostly supportive crust, not very wet snow with no support.
It would probably have been safe at first light but it would have become unsafe earlier than other slopes because the scree above would have warmed faster because its darker.
Whan I went onto the top of the slope to get to the rock I was filming from the surface few cm sloughed on top of the crust which is what I thought would happen in the rest of the bowl.
Idris was at the top of the debri flow in the couloir, as it went around the corner it went over a couple of rock steps and he was thrown in the air and further forward into the debris. After that at times he was almost buried, only a little bit of orange visible before reappearing on the surface. As he went over the rock steps his skis released. The debris flow was probably about 3m deep as it went through the choke and around the corner, out of sight.
I stopped filming as soon as it looked like Idris wasn't going to be able to get out. I wanted to watch for a last seen point and get ready for a search so I turned the camera off and zipped it in my jacket so you miss the scariest part of what I saw. The top of that couloir was the quietest, most remote place I have ever been after the avi and Idris went out of sight around the corner. The debris flow had been so deep and turbulent through the choke that I was sure I was looking for a buried and/or seriously injured person.
As soon as the slide went out of sight I got into the track to follow it down. There was still a lot of hangfire so I didn't want to touch any of the remaining snow. I hit I rock and lost I ski (Din turned down cos of a knee injury) and fell.
I ended up well below my ski and I was still thinking that every second could count so I grabbed my other ski and just slid down the rocky track. When I got to the corner all I saw at first was the debris, probably well over 2 acres.
I was so relieved to see Idris on the surface when he yelled back that he was OK.
There was no way to get out without skiing so I yelled to him to get to the side incase more came down and went back up the track as fast as I could to get my other ski. I sideslipped back down the rocks, (lucky they're explosives,) spotting the other one of Idris' skis and digging it up on the way.
I was really anxious to get out of the way incase more snow slid down so we took off with Idris trying to ski on one leg over nasty avi rubble.
I'm still shaking thinking about it and I have seen some nasty rides and swims before.
redskea. you did well and didn't panic. I would ski with you and buy a beer for you anytime.
Nice control of a bad situation red.
Holy Crap, Tom. Glad you're OK.