At least 3 dead, 15 injured after B.C. avalanche

[VanPatrol]

Wow that’s a huge freaking slide. ++++Vibes++++ to everyone involved.
Anyone have any idea of the size, propagation, crown depth, running surface, etc?

[Singel]

From one of the articles:

“The snowmobile club has really been trying to figure out a way to get it cancelled and the Ministry of Forests doesn’t like it going on because when everybody leaves, there’s beer cans and all that,” he said.

“It’s not sanctioned by anybody, in fact everybody would like to figure out a way to get it stopped, but that’s not happening — it’s got too much momentum.”



Also one of the other articles mentioned a 20 year old kid who opted not to go due to avy danger, and urged his mom and others not to.

[hutash]

Congratulations "Little Balls" you have won the "Cunt of the Thread" award. You even beat Masterbatetor of Pow.

Let's just hope the death toll doesn't rise too high.

An organized event like this in the US would start some massive lawsuits. Is that likely in Canada?

[teamdirt]

Wow that’s a huge freaking slide. ++++Vibes++++ to everyone involved.
Anyone have any idea of the size, propagation, crown depth, running surface, etc?

Vibes to all involved.

I've been up there in the past and can say the slope is about 1200-1500 feet running from treeline to alpine and about 400-600ft wide where they usually high mark the face.

[powdork]

Wow that’s a huge freaking slide. ++++Vibes++++ to everyone involved.
Anyone have any idea of the size, propagation, crown depth, running surface, etc?

2nd hand fromm the snowandmud thread (meaning it was 2nd hand already there)

900 feet wide at the top and 300 feet wide at the bottom ...30 feet deep

[Trainwreck]

Holy shit +++++vibes+++++

[powdork]

my favorite post on the internet of all time. in response to someone saying the event should have been canceled due the extraordinary avie danger.

In all fairness this thing would have been impossible to stop, people planned this weekend a year in advance...This is not the time for blame.

[LeeLau]

Vibes to all involved.

I've been up there in the past and can say the slope is about 1200-1500 feet running from treeline to alpine and about 400-600ft wide where they usually high mark the face.

Stunning.

Yup Big Iron was cancelled at least one year. The local club has nothing to do with it yet they get stuck with cleaning up garbage, trash, drunk fights etc. Its basically byo keg / weed - just add gas

[Shadam]

The repercussions from this will be felt for many years to come. There were many sponsers of this event, will they have anything to say on thier websites.

[mntlion]

wondering how many people where at this years event, and how many usually show up. Did the avi warnings keep some away? If so that part of the rescue is a huge success as the number of people was limited to start with.

If 600 usually show, and only 200 did, then 400 people where helped...

[khyber.pass]

Dark, dark jokes inside my head right now.

But let's put it another way, as Bruce Trempier does: the fastest rising group of b/c users and avi victims be snowmobilers. Redneck culture in the winter backcountry + beer + big balls event = death.

I feel most sorry for the local snowmobile club and responsible sledders everywhere. This is going to have yet (another) detrimental impact on access issues in BC.

[Zee]

Lets hope the death toll does not rise, for the obvious reasons that it is a terrible tragedy, but also because those that can not govern themselves responsibly tend to get the government to do it for them.

The higher the death toll, the more the likelihood of the government trying to limit everyone's access to the BC.

[teamdirt]

Stunning.

Yup Big Iron was cancelled at least one year. The local club has nothing to do with it yet they get stuck with cleaning up garbage, trash, drunk fights etc. Its basically byo keg / weed - just add gas

Last season the Big Dog Shootout was cancelled in Whistler due to the avalanche conditions. I'm not sure if this one is sanctioned. I know some company does host it.

I have never been to the Big Iron Shootout in Revelstoke but for years I have heard that numbers were close to 1000 sleds on the mtn. each day during that weekend.

Of note is that the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club puts a cap of 1000 sleds allowed on the mtn. in a single day. They regulate this thru trail use tickets sold at the trail head.

In recent years the mtn. has seen regular Police presence in the form of sled cops which set up check stops and also of note is they enforce the same motor vehicle laws to operating a snowmobile on crown land as they do to vehicles on the road. Drinking and driving a sled will net you the same fine as drinking and driving a vehicle.

[powdork]

The repercussions from this will be felt for many years to come. There were many sponsers of this event, will they have anything to say on thier websites.

one thing that stood out as soon as i read the flier was that there were no backcountry safety sponsors at all, which is very strange for this type of event.


not really anything new

[powder11]

If someone sticks their head in a lions mouth, should we be shocked and feel bad when the lion suddenly bites their head off? Not really. Queue up the stupid redneck jokes...

What do most rednecks say right before they die?

hold my beer while I jump my [2 stroke toy]!

[XXX-er]

I think the sport of snowmobiling had an optics problem after last year when SO many sledders were killed in aviys but they squeaked by possibly because it was people killing themselves in private

Last year the Aviy center came right out in press releases and said the BC skiers were getting "it" the aviy danger message but the sledders were NOT

now you got a major event with dead that has to be investigated by the RCMP & BC coroners office so how does the government ignore that ?

IMO the fallout will not be good for the sport but ... the fallout might be good for BC skiers & the heli-ski industry cuz the 2 groups are at odds

[BFD]

This link contains some good information concerning the orginization of this event. It is from 2009.
http://www.snowandmud.com/forum/f4/b...9-a-12997.html

[teamdirt]

Here is a straight on view of Turbo Hill from You Tube

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpZL0JuTktw&feature=related"]YouTube- Turbo Hill Revelstoke 2008[/nomedia]

[Eldo]

CTV report this morning has some video from the scene right after the slide.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...b=TopStoriesV2

[f2f]

this one hits close: a colleague of my wife's and her husband were there (hubby is active in sledder movies and competitions). they had stayed away from the main event and in lower meadows as they were heeding the avy conditions.

[techlogik]

when I see a flyer like the one above, I think organized event. when I think organized event, I think of some sort of public safety precautions taken by the organizers. on one hand I want to say, why would anybody go out there in conditions like that!?? but on the other hand, it's easy to see how so many people would assume it would be a safe site.

sad. +++

+++1 on that.

Plus the flyer is a direct UFC ripoff...

[kidwoo]

my favorite post on the internet of all time. in response to someone saying the event should have been canceled due the extraordinary avie danger.

That one stuck out and also this.

Lets all have some respect for the families involved with this situation no finger pointing or blame is needed at this time. The sport we all love comes with some risk all you can do is your best to manage it. A big thanks to all the search and rescue people aiding in the rescue.

If highmarking an open slope during extreme avi danger with special warnings issued was the 'best', I'd hate to see the worst.

[techlogik]

An "organization" and "event" should have some Ava control going on that hill before anybody arrives for the competition. Why would it be any different than the resort doing control?!?!

[Eldo]

This was posted on the Snowest forums from someone who was there but stayed away from the area where the slide hit:

Words cannot express how I feel at this time. Numb might be a good word to describe it. The Boost crew made the decision to stay away from that area from our experience the previous weekend. We kicked off some serious slabs below Turbo hill in the trees, an area called the hell hole. We measured the slabs, dug a pit to test the remaining snow, and could see perfectly preserved hoar on both layers. With the additional 80cm's of snow load on top, we knew the snowpack was extremely unstable. Turbo has not been climbed much this year, and we had observed one natural slide in there to the left hand side. It was a ticking time bomb. How do you tell 200 plus people this ? A couple climbs in the airport chutes showed that there was some instability but the steeper aspects had already naturally cleaned themselves. We then moved to the bull pen where we stayed in the narrow chutes that have less snow accumulation. The rest of the people moved to Turbo hill, we wanted to go, but better judgement told us to stay away. It wasnt until we hit the parking lot that we heard the news. It was about 45 minutes to dark, and we all felt utterly helpless. All of us sick to our stomaches worrying and wondering.
Juast to add, we were not part of this "event". Ozone Dave came up to us and tried to explain the "rules" and we all just walked away. We said it was pointless to participate with his direction. He was telling people where they had to climb, and it was retarded. We went and did our own thing, within our own comfort level. The climbs that we do every weekend, on familiar territory. Turbo hill is a North facing aspect which sees little to no sunshine, and was really a ticking time bomb. literally.

[Velillen]

I feel for the families and those involved. Vibes to them.

What i am curious is out of those 200 or so how many were actually aware and had proper backcountry gear on/with them? From what i have seen those that I would say were "knowledgeable" were also the ones who didnt go to the event due to the high risk. So how many at the event knew the avy forecast? and of them how many had beacons?

Perhaps the police/local club could have had a sign at the trail head clearly stating the avy danger (one of those burn risk type signs). Now im getting onto the preventing thing. Its a sad day for BC users and hopefully the death toll doesnt rise anymore