Cherry Bowl (Shames BC) multiple burial, no fatalies, March 17 2013

Below is from the CAA. 4 people from out of town skied Cherry Bowl (rating that day was considerable/considerable/moderate). They were transitioning at the bottom when a very large slide (I've heard 3.5) was set off remotely from a group of locals well above the lower group. The local lads knew there was people below and set off a spot emergency locator then skied down and rescued/dug out the buried victims. Reports are that the 3 burials were at least 1.5m down and it took 20 minutes to find em and dig them out.

It's a fucking miracle that the 3 buried survived. This is the second time in 2 years that people from afar have come here, skied/skinned a questionable line and were fully buried. Damn, if ya'll come up here please be careful.




Location
Terrace, Shames, Cherry Bowl
Location Description
Province
BC
Mountain Range
Coast Mountains
Coordinates
0 0
Elevation
-
Activity
Backcountry Skiing
Involvement
3
Injury
-
Fatality
0
Description
Skiers in two independent groups traversing the ridge on their way to ski Cherry Bowl and area. 1st group skied the steep line off the top of Cherry Bowl on skier’s right side. Nothing moved. 2nd group traversed the ridge further to the low point remotely triggering a size 3.5 that propagated about ½ of the bowl running full path overcoming 3 of the 4 people in the group during the transition. 2nd group skied to bottom and dug out 3 fully buried victims. The 3 buried people were all at least 1.5 meters below the surface and recovered alive with minor injuries. 1 member of the 1st group was on the snow looking for his group. All gear was lost from the 1st group as they were in transition from ski to skin. - Wind was moderately blowing with snow squalls moving through in and out. - Sun was out warming solar aspects. - Snow on north aspects was cold and dry. - Ski pen was 15cms. - Cherry Bowl - Crown width is approx. 350m - Crown depth was approx. 30-50cm - Slide ran approx. 1000m distance - Vertical ran is 450m - Suspect it ran on March 9th surface hoar - Suspected that skiers were transported roughly 300m in distance

I was curious to see what this zone looked like as I've oggled these mountains from the highway a few times and seen how big the terrain is. Pics hit home how lucky these guys were. Huge props to the responding party for what sounds like a textbook rescue.

Attachment 134968
Attachment 134969
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damn, very lucky.

don't know that range, but am a little confused on the last bit, weren't the visitors below, and locals were above and nicked the trigger? Were they standing/staging in a known bad spot? Lessons learned=?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tye 1on

damn, very lucky.

Lessons learned=?

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Stay away from the locals?

Glad to hear all ended well. Three buried, 1.5 down, sounds excellent response by upper group. Wow!!!

shit Gary, so glad all are OK.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tye 1on

damn, very lucky.

don't know that range, but am a little confused on the last bit, weren't the visitors below, and locals were above and nicked the trigger? Were they standing/staging in a known bad spot? Lessons learned=?

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I think so. Although I have the benefit of hindsight.
Things were apparently touchy with a fresh dump on top of extensive surface hoar. Cherry Bowl is a big feature.

Definitely huge props to the rescuing party. I talked to one of the boys last night and called him a hero, but he'd have none of it. Ironically one of the ACMG in town put on a companion rescue course a couple of weekends ago. I believe at least 2 of the 4 rescuers took the course.

Oftpiste, thanks for that man. Fucking miracle it was. Oh Hutash, better to CONVERSE with the locals BEFORE going out and skiing the big line in new territory (and the buried surface hoar is everywhere) methinks. Yeah, seriously great response time and keeping their heads in the game by the boys.

http://backcountryskiingcanada.com/i...#cherry%20bowl

Is picture #2 the actual burial site?

Damn lucky is the understatement of the day.

Those companion rescue classes are probably some of the better time spent in a class. Good to have practiced conveyor shoveling before it is needed.

^^
Yep. if you could blow it up you would see 3 pits at the bottom of the debris in an almost triangle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garyfromterrace

Oh Hutash, better to CONVERSE with the locals BEFORE going out and skiing the big line in new territory (and the buried surface hoar is everywhere) methinks.

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Plus you'll never find locals as willing to knowledgeably share or show as at Shames.

Glad everyone is ok G.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PNWbrit

Plus you'll never find locals as willing to knowledgeably share or show as at Shames.

Glad everyone is ok G.

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Thanks, and thanks PNWB!

just checking in G, wow some action in your hood.

they say any publicity is good. keep em safe, smell ya later:biggrin:
bobby, Q ,G + baby c.

Yo bobby, not the kind of action we want but action just the same buddy. Probably will have the effect of people thinking about shit more, so in that way you are correct - the publicity is good...
Greetings to the clan!

Question here...
So the visitors skied a line and didn't trigger the known surface hoar layer. Then the locals skied in above where the visitors were stopped to transition, triggered a remote that took out half the bowl and buried the visitors. Were the locals aware of the surface hoar reports? Were they aware of the consid/consid/mod danger rating?
Were the "locals" on the ridgetop when they triggered it, or on their way down the top pitch of the bowl? How far were they from the slab crown? If they were in the top of the bowl, did they see the visitors parked down below throwing skins on? Trying to get a better visualization of the scene is all. Thx.

^^
great questions ed. good to see you back. better find that out.

I haven't heard too much from over here and thot they were legitimate Q's that might help make a more clear pic. Thanks Gary!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ed nauseum

Question here...
So the visitors skied a line and didn't trigger the known surface hoar layer. Then the locals skied in above where the visitors were stopped to transition, triggered a remote that took out half the bowl and buried the visitors.

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Nope, the locals were skinning up a ridge feature (there's a large ridge line there).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ed nauseum

Were the locals aware of the surface hoar reports? Were they aware of the consid/consid/mod danger rating?

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I would say given the crew involved that yes, they knew.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ed nauseum

Question here...
Were the "locals" on the ridgetop when they triggered it, or on their way down the top pitch of the bowl?How far were they from the slab crown?

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No, they were skinning along a ridge line (upwards generally). It was a remote trigger, but I forgot to ask them how close they were to the crown.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ed nauseum

If they were in the top of the bowl, did they see the visitors parked down below throwing skins on? Trying to get a better visualization of the scene is all. Thx.

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They knew there was people down there because they saw their tracks. I'm not sure there was a sight line from the "locals" to the guys transitioning at the bottom. That's a long way.

Glad every one made it out alive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bunion

Is picture #2 the actual burial site?

Damn lucky is the understatement of the day.

Those companion rescue classes are probably some of the better time spent in a class. Good to have practiced conveyor shoveling before it is needed.

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Yikes. Usually if you see holes like that in a debris pile, the outcome was not good. Nice save.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garyfromterrace

^^
Yep. if you could blow it up you would see 3 pits at the bottom of the debris in an almost triangle.

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In the enlarged pic #2 you can see the pits... thank God all survived..

http://www.cbc.ca/anewday/episodes/2...che-survivors/

This adds some detail however pretty much everything has already been said.

It's not the coastal rockies BTW It's the coast mountain range.

Here's more:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/...avalanche.html

^^ Very insightful (particularly the radio link). Thanks

Very interesting mulit-media thing on the incident:

http://www.avalanche.ca/cherry-bowl/#/intro

Very little on the actual trigger though - possibly on purpose I guess. Remote skier triggering is something I haven't, until recently, spent a lot of time thinking about because up until a few years ago - you almost never saw another group out skiing in these parts.

That has changed and I should really focus on this risk more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LHutz Esq

Very interesting mulit-media thing on the incident:

http://www.avalanche.ca/cherry-bowl/#/intro

Very little on the actual trigger though - possibly on purpose I guess. Remote skier triggering is something I haven't, until recently, spent a lot of time thinking about because up until a few years ago - you almost never saw another group out skiing in these parts.

That has changed and I should really focus on this risk more.

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Very cool. Thanks

Had the incredible privilege of hearing this story from Brad Zeerip himself last season, standing at the spot where he dug the folks out of the snow. What a remarkable event. This is great learning material.

CAA made a very good doc about this incident. Stay safe out there everyone.

https://www.avalanche.ca/cherry-bowl/#/intro

The photo of where they got caught confuses me. Why would you stop there and put skins back on? One of you locals want to chime in on how Cherry Bowl is usually skied?

Good question. I would not do my transition there.

好

I'm teaching an avalanche class and would like to use the Cherry Bowl accident as a case study but can't find info on the Snowpack history and avy forecast leading up to this accident. Do any of you have access to this info or have suggestions where to find it? The accident report on avalanche.ca doesn't include this intel.

Basically I'm hoping to find out what information was available to the group the morning of the accident.

Thanks!

I don't have a link to the wx hx, but you can find an article that we did about the Cherry Bowl accident in The Avalanche Review at this link, page 20:
http://www.americanavalancheassociat...4_Feb_2016.pdf