Alpine Meadows patrolle buried, critically injured during control work

Hell no, you couldn't pay me to live there. One of S.gaffney's buds got his garage and the first room off of it destroyed two years ago. Seems like only a matter of time before that whole scenario gives your house a clean high top fade. Caldwell's place is off to the looker's left of that whole zone. Not even close to the same topography setup.

Oh yeah.....pretty sure they don't use the big gun to bomb that. They'd have to shoot over houses to do so.........which would be insane (located on "gunner's knob btw). There's a crew that drives over to squaw and hops on KT on storm days.

Pay attention to the snow bank when you drive to alpine. You'll see rises right in the 'action zone' :D

used to be a truck-mounted avaluancher for road control work - unsure if that's still the case - road has been an issue for years - at one point AM stopped doing road mitigation due to issues with the FS, county and homeowners - that was not ideal

Troy's place is well built, well placed, and well protected.

it's been 10 years since I lived there, so things could have changed a bit

Just one comment on an Avalauncher.

Not the most effective tool for the job.

Currently a single round is around $ 80.00.

The projectiles only contain a 1kg charge (a Canadian company does offer a 2 kg charge).

The detonating system in use (with the exception of the Delta K round) cause the rounds to explode slightly after impact so unless you are able to shoot at rock bands or cliff faces, the round burrows pretty deep into the snow before it fires resulting in a pretty ineffective blast.

Avalaunchers have their place but they are not the ultimate solution.

If AM had been able to wait until good weather, maybe a heli bombing mission may have been a better way to go, but few ski areas are willing to shoulder those costs either.

heli bombing

not used around Tahoe yet, but I bet we see more of it in more places in the future

of course, I was replaced as a heli bomber in AK by a Daisy Bell.....

not too many employers are happy to see us flying around with thousands of pounds of ANFO in a ship

Quote:

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Originally Posted by telemike

heli bombing

not used around Tahoe yet, but I bet we see more of it in more places in the future

of course, I was replaced as a heli bomber in AK by a Daisy Bell.....

not too many employers are happy to see us flying around with thousands of pounds of ANFO in a ship

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I would not be surprised to see AM/SV getting a Daisy Bell either, for their storms and terrain it would make a lot of sense, especially if they could recoup some of the costs by renting it for highway control or other applications.

Condolences; vibes, etc.

Attended the funeral of my former director who was killed by avalanche in the line of duty a couple years ago.

Not very familiar with the area but even if I was it's tough to say what could be done better. These guys have lifetimes of experience between them. Just because it's an extraordinary situation out there out there doesn't mean they haven't seen similar conditions before. As discussed above, December '08 comes to mind. There are a lot of variables though, by nature, snow is inherently unpredictable, which is what makes control so dangerous.

On another note, after 9/11, the feds really cracked down artillery and explosives. It's a huge ordeal for a non federal and/or state agency to implement and maintain a long range artillery program. As Patrollers at the time, we had to fill out a bunch of supplemental riders to our explosives permits regarding even misdemeanor offenses in our pasts. There's also huge liability for the manufacturers of explosives related to avalanche control. From an industry standpoint, avalanche control work represents a tiny fraction of the business while having a proportionally very high accident rate. Bunion could probably to speak more to this but it was my understanding that the ability of non-state/federal agencies (ie: ski patrols) to use high explosives at all was in serious jeopardy for a few years there.

Anyway, hope it gets better for everyone out there. Tough deal all around.

Does anyone remember the Powder article a number of years ago about avy control at AM and Alta--(many AM owners ago and since the 83 slide)? The article describes the patrol director with the list of charges to be dropped that day and the mountain manager telling him to shorten the list--use less explosives. Of course that has nothing to do with the thinking of current management. (BTW the picture taken of Beaver ridge taken from the north end with patrol along the ridge and an enormous cornice is one of the greatest mountain pictures I've ever seen--AM used it in it's literature for a couple of years.)

who is using Daisy Bell in lower 48?

AEL&P in AK is the only US user I am aware of

There was one operating in Utah for BCC/LCC highway mitigation as well as used by the ski areas.

Also another in/near Vancouver BC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by telemike

who is using Daisy Bell in lower 48?

AEL&P in AK is the only US user I am aware of

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Jim Bay could tell you for sure, but regarding North American users I think he has one for railroad control work near Revelstoke and resort control work as well. There may be a second one in the Kootenays under contract for highway control as well. I haven't had Jim as a guide for several years so my info could be out of date. We have a fair amount of clear weather in Tahoe, so if they can do heli control work in Canada you would think we could do it here.

Much love from the Whistler Patrol

Stay strong brothers and sisters.