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WTF? Didn't think we had enough snow - hope everyone is okay!
BREAKING NEWS:
There has been a small avalanche on Summit West at the Snoqualmie Ski Resort in Washington. A male skier, caught in the avalanche, has been rescued and is being airlifted to Harborview Hospital in Seattle. More details to come.
Enough snow, but I didn't think Summit West had enough slope to slide!
That report may be wrong. I was up at Alpental this morning, and I have numerous sources/personal observations telling me that the slide occurred there. I'll post more as I hear it.
http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23152
Schmear - please let us know what you hear.
From komo:
KOMO NEWS ALERT: One skier has been injured in a small avalanche at the Alpental ski resort at Snoqualmie Summit. He's been airlifted to Harborview. A second skier hit was not injured.
Edit - also:
EATTLE - A male skier was caught in an avalanche at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass on Wednesday afternoon.
Two skiers were skiing in a closed area when the avalanche occurred at about 12:30 p.m. One man was buried, the other went for help.
KING
The man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.
Both men were wearing avalanche beacons, which helped rescuers on the scene.
The 28-year-old man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His condition was not immediately known.
One was buried, one went for help!?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schmear
Cool - I just pulled it off of the KING 5 web site. Don't know any more that what it says. Keep us posted.
I'm hearing very bad news. :(
I want to wait until the facts come out before I say more.
I totally thought this was a joke thread when I read the title... hope the guy is okay.
Schmear,
What were the conditions atop of Chair 2?
Fortunately (in hindsight), I forgot my poles this morning (which I've never done before) and never got on my skis. Just hung around in the parking lot and visited people I know up there. But I heard there were high winds and lots of new grapelish snow on leeward slopes.
"graupelish" snow = freezing rain??
Not quite more like fine hail or pellets - caused by turbulence in the atmosphere as snow flake forms and falls. very unstable and slow to bondQuote:
Originally Posted by Duder
I see I see.
Does anyone know where the Dudes were at Alpe? BC or inbounds?
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stor....7c.9602d9.jpg
Man caught in avalanche at Snoqualmie Pass
03:18 PM PST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
SEATTLE - A male skier was caught in an avalanche at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass on Wednesday afternoon.
Two skiers were skiing when the avalanche occurred at about 12:30 p.m. One man was buried, the other went for help.
Though the ski area was closed, skiing was allowed with the understanding that it wasn't patrolled and no avalanche control work would likely have been done.
Both men were wearing avalanche beacons, which helped rescuers on the scene.
The 28-year-old man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His condition was not immediately known.
Alpental has a vertical drop of 2,280 feet and over 300 acres of skiable terrain.
A winter storm warning was in effect for the Cascades through Wednesday evening. Snow accumulations of around a foot of snow were expected this evening, with a few locations receiving up to 18 inches of snow. The heaviest snow amounts were expected to be between Stevens and Snoqualmie passes.
KOMO is reporting it as a fatality:
SNOQUALMIE PASS - A skier died after getting caught in a small avalanche Wednesday
sad sad news
LAN will know - she works at Harborview.Quote:
Originally Posted by grrrr
RIP
4567890
Am I the only one that sees something horribly wrong here? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
Shit. This is not what I needed to hear. Especially after the super crappy start to the season in the PNW. I hope and pray that KOMO is incorrect with their reporting :(
Yep not good - hope that's just bad reporting!Quote:
Originally Posted by truth
with all of the cold, clear evenings we've had of late...how much of the snow surface has re-crystallized into surface hoar?Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
LAN actually doesn't work at Harborview anymore, she's at Overlake ER.
Regardless... I just saw the KING report on TV and they are reporting a fatality too. As the Airlift NW hilo took off, they were still performing CPR.
I can confirm that it is a fatality. It's been a spooky day.
Requisat in Pacem.
Friend?Quote:
Originally Posted by Schmear
:(
if it's got snow on it, and any slope (even one degree), it can slide.Quote:
Originally Posted by optics
I was waiting for that.
Ya know what I mean, dude.
RIP. :(
[Second-hand info] In-bounds, at the top of Lower Internationale. [/second-hand info] A very scary piece of information if you're one of the many who've skinned up Alpental in the last week. That is a pretty popular (and easily reachable) preseason ski slope.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duder
Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
in my experience it only takes a few days for graupel to stabalize around here. the day after is bad but you can see the bonds start to develop in a pit when the temps are near freezing.
check for facets starting to develop in the snowpack. depth hoar in the thin pack and tg snow just under the surface. the tg will usually take over in the most porous layer of snow or around crusts. it should be interesting to see what you find.Quote:
with all of the cold, clear evenings we've had of late...how much of the snow surface has re-crystallized into surface hoar?
i'm sorry to hear about the man passing but it seemed likely when it was mentioned that the partner went for help. it is a tough position to be in as a rescuer but you are the only person at that time that has a chance of saving your partner. i'd like to know how long he searched before he went for help. it's aweful that this keeps happening but it should remind us all to practice our rescue techniques until we think we can do it blindfolded. i hope the media doesn't critique this situation the way the durrand incident was. it is only important to learn from the mistakes and not criticise.
thoughts and prayers to friends and family to all involved
NWAC Data for today:
OLYMPICS-WASHINGTON CASCADES NEAR AND WEST OF THE CREST-
Increasing considerable avalanche danger above 3-4000 feet
Wednesday, especially Stevens and Snoqualmie, and moderate below.
Avalanche danger decreasing on Thursday becoming considerable
above 5-6000 feet and moderate below.
SNOWPACK ANALYSIS
Strong west winds and several inches of new snow at generally
warmer temperatures have been seen Wednesday morning near and
west of the Cascade crest. Temperature increases for the past 24
hours range from 5 to 15 deg F at most sites with the strongest
rises in the Cascade passes. This weather will have build new
potential higher density wind slab layers of possibly a foot or
more on lee east aspects. These potential slab layers with have
built over previous weaker buried hoar frost and lower density
snow layers that have recently been reported in most areas. Slab
releases in the new snow may step into these layers. Hence human
triggered slab avalanches should already be probable on steeper
lee slopes at higher elevations by Wednesday morning. The mid
December crust should now be generally buried about 1-4 feet
below the surface. Faceting of layers adjacent to the mid
December crust has also been reported but there have been no
reports of releases to these layers. On some wind exposed slopes
the snow may remain scoured to the mid December crust. At lower
elevations especially along the lower Cascade east slopes a
continued shallow snow pack is probably limiting the avalanche
danger.
Skier Killed By Small Avalanche At Alpental
January 12, 2005
By KOMO Staff & News Services
SNOQUALMIE PASS - A skier died Wednesday after being caught in a small avalanche.
The 28-year-old man died after being airlifted from Alpental ski area to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said she could not confirm the report because of patient privacy law.
A spokesman for The Summit at Snoqualmie, which includes Alpental and three other ski areas, said the avalanche struck around 12:30 p.m., burying the skier below the International Cliffs, an area that was closed because there wasn't enough snow.
A friend who was skiing with the victim was partially buried, but was able to dig himself out, Summit spokesman Jon Pretty said.
Two other skiers were in the area at the time but weren't caught in the snow slide. One helped locate the buried skier, and the other notified ski patrol, Pretty said.
A ski patrol crew found the buried skier, who, like his friend, was wearing an avalanche beacon, about 40 minutes after the avalanche. He was unconscious and airlifted to Seattle, Pretty said.
The avalanche was triggered when snow at the base of International Cliffs broke loose, Pretty said.
There are signs posted in the area saying it's not open for skiing.
------------------
I added the bold. Sounds like the friend didn't know how to search?
it was after 2pm when the lifeflight actually arrived. around 2:30 when it left. strange enough, they lifted him out of the parking lot at West. There must not be a good LZ for a chopper at Alpental I guess.
I have to say I'm not completely surprised about the slide activity though. The wind was really howling most of the day. I can't say for sure about the Alpental Valley, you know the weather is always different over there, but I can't imagine there wasn't pretty significant wind loading going on.
This is horrible and sad news to come home to.
I just wanted to point out the Snow Pack Info Exchange that friends of NWAC has added to their site. Check it out and post info from your bc travels in the PNW.
http://www.avalanchenw.org/info_exchange.html
PS My thougts go out to the friends and family of the victim