San Juan double fatality

The final report is posted: https://classic.avalanche.state.co.u...=831&accfm=inv

Attachment 450553

“There were no witnesses to the avalanche, so everything we know about the event comes from looking at the skier’s tracks and equipment. At the site, we found ski tracks consistent with ascending but not descending. Both skiers had climbing skins on their skis when the avalanche caught them. They both carried avalanche transceivers, shovels, and probe poles. They both wore avalanche airbag packs. The trigger on each pack was still zipped inside the shoulder strap and neither had deployed their airbag. The skiers were buried together below the steepest portion of the slope.”

It sounds like they would have had no chance to react. I couldn’t imagine that moment when the release occurred and the aftermath. RIP.

We had a somber skate ski at Vallecito today after passing the site on a bluebird day. The cornices were prevalent and the slopes all looked very inviting and seemingly benign, but also looked very much like above tree line skiing.

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Edit: from this morning’s roof shoveling, the lowest layer seems consistent with the site snow pit data:

Attachment 450661

Condoloences to friends and family. A tragic and unexpected loss.

For the sake of discussion, I don't think the high vs low terrain stability applies in a continental snowpack, my feeling it is just too variable/thin. Any slope steep enough to 'lanche is steep enough to kill, and this includes treed slopes or slopes close to civilization that don't always fill in every year. This is a dangerous game and you can't take anything for granted when it comes to terrain.

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Originally Posted by goldenboy

I'm surprised by the comments regarding lower elevation snowpacks. With CO's continental snowpack, I'd strongly disagree that lower elevations are safer. In fact, I generally consider them much less safe. If I go to higher elevations right now, I go to more of an intermountain snowpack- the basal layers are far too deep for a person to trigger. PWL's have been off the problem list for weeks now- in our snowier high elevation areas. But go downvalley? Now you've got a 2' slab sitting on 2' of facets. You're right back to CO crap snowpack.

Generally, a deeper snowpack is a safer one. Lower elevation means less snow and a higher temperature gradient, both because of colder inversion temps and the smaller snowpack.

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Kind of apples to oranges. Powdork is used to the Tahoe Sierra snowpack and you are coming from an area that often (most of the time) has a very thin, continental snowpack. You are both right but from two completely different perspectives.

It looks like there was safe skiing on either side of the steeper bowl that they skied into.

Avalanches don't care about what we are used to or are expecting.

My take away was terrain terrain terrain. Which is kind of a truism.

CAIC has released the final report on the La Manga Pass avalanche fatality -- didn't see it posted elsewhere:

https://classic.avalanche.state.co.u...=832&accfm=inv

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andy m

CAIC has released the final report on the La Manga Pass avalanche fatality -- didn't see it posted elsewhere:

https://classic.avalanche.state.co.u...=832&accfm=inv

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Damn, the dude without gear was warned and still headed straight into the most dangerous spot. Well, you can lead a horse.......

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Originally Posted by raisingarizona13

Damn, the dude without gear was warned and still headed straight into the most dangerous spot. Well, you can lead a horse.......

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That's not correct. Re-read the report. Rider 3 felt a collapse and saw cracking and shared those observations with Rider 4. Those observations were not shared with the rest of the group, including Rider 1 (the victim).

There are a lot of serious errors here, but I think the takeaway should be how do we reach these mechanized communities that are clearly far behind the ski/snowboard world when it comes to basic avalanche awareness and protocols? This was a group of people that were apparently deeply involved in the local community and spent plenty of time recreating in the winter backcountry, yet only some of them had basic safety gear and none were even aware of the forecast. Clearly we're missing something here.

Lots of thread drift here. Spoke with friend from PS who has skiied for years with the victims. They are confounded by the incident and route which was taken. They were considered exceptionally cautious, well trained and solid ski partners. She is heart broken at the loss.

A friend with SAR mentioned that one of the recovery team said it was inconclusive as to whether or not they were in transition because one of the victim’s skins were not on his skis.


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Vibes For All and R.I.P.