utah avy forecaster almost wacked

Quoting the utah avalanch report this morning:

"There was a very close call in the backcountry yesterday. Two avalanche workers were examining different crowns in the south facing Monte Cristo slide path in upper Little Cottonwood, when a party above inadvertently released a cornice, hitting the upper worker and triggering a slab avalanche that ran 1500‘. The upper worker was caught and carried, eventually self arresting to avoid a fatal ride, and the slide missed the lower person. In spite of almost killing two people and wasting $1000 worth of gear, the cornice droppers didn’t even offer an apology. Bottom line: Just because you have two strong legs, good lungs and can make turns doesn’t mean you belong in the backcountry. You need good avalanche and backcountry travel skills, and before you drop cornices, jump off cliffs, ski cut slopes or drop steep lines, you must be CERTAIN that no one is below you."

Anybodie know the rest of the story? not looking to create lecturing or fingerpointing, just learning..

Lecturing and fingerpointing actually sound pretty appropriate.

yeah but I bet we could do some fine monday morning quaterbacking on both sides.

Or Wednesday Afternoon Quarterbacking.... as long as it's not Rothlisberger.

Who do we know that skis in the LCC Backcountry and often drops cornices?

lemon - itd be much more fun armchair q-backing if the cornice was heli-triggered by WPG bombing who then landed rabid splitboarders who crossed tracks all the way down the slope

Those UAC guys need to carry portable "Men Working" signs, then this could have been avoided.

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Originally Posted by Tippster

Or Wednesday Afternoon Quarterbacking.... as long as it's not Rothlisberger.

Who do we know that skis in the LCC Backcountry and often drops cornices?

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Wasn't me. Wasn't Gramps. Wasn't APD. So you can start somewhere else.

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Originally Posted by lemon boy

yeah but I bet we could do some fine monday morning quaterbacking on both sides.

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Maybe it was the B-town ski patrol again, LB :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by Professor

Maybe it was the B-town ski patrol again, LB :biggrin:

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:fuckyou: :fuckyou: :fuckyou: don't even get me started. :fuckyou: :fuckyou: :fuckyou:



:D :D :D

tippster, dropping cornices is big bidness there so no telling.

The thing that confuses me about the quoted paragraph is:

was it a drop or inadvertent?

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Originally Posted by homerjay

Those UAC guys need to carry portable "Men Working" signs, then this could have been avoided.

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I was thinking shoot off a flare every 15 minutes. Or maybe just get dayglow oakley clothes

given that the party above "inadvertently" dropped it I'm thinking this wasn't intentional...

Here is a picture of the crown they might have been inspecting. Taken on Saturday 2/4/2006.

http://www.biglines.com/photos/norma...ines_52062.jpg

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Wasn't me. Wasn't Gramps. Wasn't APD. So you can start somewhere else.

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Wasn't accusing - just implying that maybe you guys might know those involved.

damn!!!
seriously hope both forecaster's are ok and that the cornice dropper(s) can be found and had a discussion with.

not cool!!!

I simply can't believe snowboarders haven't been accused yet.

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Originally Posted by rideit

I simply can't believe snowboarders haven't been accused yet.

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Everyone just assumed it was snowboarders, duh.

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Originally Posted by rideit

I simply can't believe snowboarders haven't been accused yet.

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It was implied, duh.

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Originally Posted by rideit

I simply can't believe snowboarders haven't been accused yet.

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Nope, but rideit sure is an idiot.

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Originally Posted by iceman

Everyone just assumed it was snowboarders, duh.

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nah, I thought they were too busy taking a dump in the middle of the skin track they were postholing while throwing away the empty beer cans.

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Originally Posted by rideit

I simply can't believe snowboarders haven't been accused yet.

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high road my man, high road. :)

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Originally Posted by Buster Highmen

Nope, but rideit sure is an idiot.

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Lighten up, Francis...

http://shopbizshop.com/billmurray0501044.JPG

This discussion is not worth continuing until the full story has been told by witnesses.

To many armchairs at this point.

actually armchair works around the corner from my office and I still haven't seen him.

this might be long. but oh well. the story is that there were mistakes made by both parties. ultimately what happened is that we were traveling on the ridge between supierior and monte cristo at what seemed to be a safe distance from the edge and unfortunately it wasnt. the cornice broke about six to eight feet from the edge. the slide itself was slow moving and didnt carry much volume. we did not realize the forcaster was there. yes we knew he was planning on going to monte cristo but he was probably a good ten minutes or more ahead of us by the time we got to the top of supierior and hadnt informed us of the fact that he would be on the face working. this doesnt take away from the scare of starting a slide on top of someone wether they are standing on a slope or skiing. its scary. after finding that he was ok we offered any help we could, gave him some food and appologized, as well as discussing what happend and what could have been differently.
1 we were all traveling to close to the edge and any one of us could have remotely triggered a cornice.
2 we should have more thouroghly checked the slope to make sure it was clear
3 when we began to climb the sketchier terrain, maybe we should have changed our plan
4 the forcaster should have let us know his plan espcially when knowing we would be traveling above him.
ultimately it was an in your face learning experience an im glad that no one was hurt.

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

This discussion is not worth continuing until the full story has been told by witnesses.

To many armchairs at this point.

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There was a discussion? I didn't really see one at all in the first page of banter.

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Originally Posted by Rolowe

we did not realize the forcaster was there. yes we knew he was planning on going to monte cristo but he was probably a good ten minutes or more ahead of us by the time we got to the top of supierior and hadnt informed us of the fact that he would be on the face working.

4 the forcaster should have let us know his plan espcially when knowing we would be traveling above him.

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When on top of Superior, and for a lot of the traverse over to Cristo, that headwall is staring you right in the face. How could you have possibly missed two people moving around on it???

This afternoon, I talked to one of the forecasters involved, and he said "everything is good now" - they talked to the other party (as stated above) and were able to go back today and find all their gear. It didn't seem like any grudges were being held - which is nice to hear, considering what could have happened.

When on top of Superior, and for a lot of the traverse over to Cristo, that headwall is staring you right in the face. How could you have possibly missed two people moving around on it???[/QUOTE]
your correct the headwall does stare you in the face. the worker was alone and under a cornice on the saddle.

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Originally Posted by gramps

There was a discussion? I didn't really see one at all in the first page of banter.



When on top of Superior, and for a lot of the traverse over to Cristo, that headwall is staring you right in the face. How could you have possibly missed two people moving around on it???

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Gramps, you're making my point. Neither you or I were there. It's all banter unless you were there. There are two sides to every story. We only heard one on the avy forecast.

We'll discuss this further in the Tetons.

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Originally Posted by Trackhead

Gramps, you're making my point. Neither you or I were there. It's all banter unless you were there. There are two sides to every story. We only heard one on the avy forecast.

We'll discuss this further in the Tetons.

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Well, TH actually we've heard both sides now: The one on the Avy report and the account this guy posted here. But you're right, armchair QBing is something that goes on too much here as it is. Glad it's been worked out between the people involved.

damn sounds more like a circus than the backcountry!
maybe you all should bring your moms with you next time
what kind of dipshit avy forcaster is hanging around cornices without a partner spotting him with a radio???
last time i checked, you dont need a permit to drop a cornice in a national forest!
sounds like the avy boys think the world revolves around them
i heard the snowboarder busted a fat 3 off that shit and stuck the landing

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Originally Posted by gramps

Well, TH actually we've heard both sides now:

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No, we haven't. We've heard the avy reports account (second hand), and a first hand account.

Lee's wrote that report, not the people involved in the incident. Facts get skewed by anger and embarrassment. I don't know if that happened in this scenario, but it sounds like it did.

From today's forecast.

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First, we want to apologize for our ranting yesterday when a backcountry party triggered a cornice and very nearly killed two UDOT avalanche workers below on Monte Cristo in Little Cottonwood Canyon. As avalanche workers, we all have several close friends who have been killed in avalanches and we all live in constant fear of it ourselves. So when some of our closet friends and most respected avalanche workers have a close call, we tend to get tweaked. It sounds like it was unintentional and an honest mistake. But we still shouldn’t loose the lesson that we all need to be careful about traveling above other parties in avalanche terrain—something that is often overlooked in the urban backcountry of the Wasatch.

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Remember earlier this year, when a very experienced backcountry traveler broke a cornice and took a ride?

The way I see it, this type of backcountry overlap is going to become more and more of an issue in the wasatch, so I figured it a worthy discusson, if not, a worthy bantering session. I started going into the backcountry so I didn't have to worry about other people, but in the wasatch this is often no longer the case.

No one wants "buried + killed a group of skiers beneath me" on their resume, or their conscience.