Inbounds Slide at Mt Baker Today

[nwskipro]

A couple guys I work with witnessed first hand an inbounds slide on "Libraries" at the bottom of Sam's Ridge today. It was a partial burial (x2). No one was injured thankfully but everyone involved was pretty shook up. Just throwing this out there... hopefully Baker will take a little better care of avy control and not just try to throw this under the rug.

[huckster989]

I was very close to the area when the slide occurred, the basics of the situation was that Baker had been getting 12-14 inches a day for a couple days and had been opening late (10-10:30). early in the day maybe 15 minutes after lifts opened a skier or snowboarder in upper libraries on sams ridge (chair 5 area) cut a slope that had previously been bombed. Although the slope had gone earlier a section had not released and was let go by the rider. This slide below and gathered fresh snow from that morning on the way down. Here is a link to the news story

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/256/story/315581.html

The story tells little to no of what actually happened, the 2 men were actually 3 men and woman. The woman was partially buried and I helped dig her out because she was unable to remove herself. out of the group one rider was missing, he was later located and found to have been in front of the slide. As a precaution the patrol and riders ran an extensive probe line to confirm that no one else had been caught in the slide and may not have been wearing a beacon.

I feel that the ski area dealt with the situation well and was very impressed with all the volunteer help that local riders offered and the time and effort that went into the probing. I also think that situations like this should be avoidable and that this is a good reminder to ride with partners both in and out of bounds as well as carrying avalanche gear.