Vail Pass Avi Saturday the 29th

[Crampedon]

The Vail daily has a brief report about this, anyone know more?

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/201...ntProfile=1062


I was back there friday with Vail powder guides, had an amazing day, stayed well away from anything high-angle. Saw numerous recent activity and absurd high-marks beneath some huge cornice. Saw hybrid skier and boarders standing on same cornice from across on Machine gun ridge. Also saw many snowmo tracks in clearly closed areas, right in front of the cat a pair of boarders on a 2-stroke turned past a "no snowmobile" sign into a deep creek bed that looked like a crazy terrain trap...bogging and almost getting stuck on the way in...

Hope no one gets killed....

[summit]

HS-ARu-R3/D2-O

It was in the Lobster Claw off Uneva... nonmotorized side of the pass.

http://avalanche.state.co.us/acc/acc...=291&accfm=off

[Crampedon]

Jeez that's a big slide, right to the rock face. Hope the injured person is okay.

I noticed tracks up near there driving back down the pass west, must have been on the face in front of Uneva that faces the highway. So that area is a skin-to area? cool.

Safe riding everyone.

http://hikingincolorado.org/hikemap.html

[Shredhead]

Sw aspect late Saturday, was kind of asking for it.

[goldenboy]

Snowpack doesn't look that thick there. Wonder if it was a repeat offender or just windstripped.

[fids11]

The guys who work the parking area said that she broke both ankles in the slide. She was able to swim to the surface and apparently she was heli'd out pretty quickly. That's alot better result than i would've figured after looking at it from the highway, real big slide...

[Crampedon]

Good for her, the picture is scary! Hope she is fine. I would not want bindings that did not release in any kind of slide.

[snowfish]

Heli wasn't able to land due to scary down drafts at the scene. USFS and VMRG took her out on a sled back to the CDOT sandshed and a waiting ambulance. Sounds like she got to the ambulance at 8:30pm Sat. night. Pretty scary looking crown, she is quite lucky to be alive I'd say.

I am curious to hear more about the group dynamic (2 males and 2 females, skiers and snowboarders) and the human factors that contributed to this incident. Not to point fingers, but there is always something to learn from an incident such as this.

F amiliarity
A cceptance
C ommitment
E xpert Halo
T racks
S carcity

I think I have that right.

[Crampedon]

F amiliarity
A cceptance
G Gopro
C ommitment
E xpert Halo
T racks
S carcity

I think I have that right.

Fixed it, almost right, it has been updated FAGCETS

Vibes to the gal hurt++++ 8:30pm is well after to sunset to get dragged around the back with two broken ankles. Somebody has a new slave boy.

ps- I love my new gopro, but there has been chatter about users standing in stupid places while filming and it may be a new a real risk to add to FACETS

[MakersTeleMark]

That same face ripped out about the same time last year, although under different circumstances.

I'm curious when the last female burial in Colorado was? I can't think of one. Glad she's OK, and that they went one at a time.

As for the snowpack, it gets pretty wind hammered up there.

[freshseeker]

I'm curious when the last female burial in Colorado was? I can't think of one.

Although its rare for females to get caught, Ridgeway guide Heidi Kloos last spring,
http://avalanche.state.co.us/acc/acc...=139&accfm=inv

[BFD]

interesting

The snowpack failed on two crust/facet layers below a firm slab. In our fracture-line profile we observed snowpit tests CTH29Q1 and ECTP30Q1. We could not confirm that either of these layers contained surface hoar. However, they were both Fist hard layers, about 1 cm thick and above a very thin ice crust. The layers were composed of 1-2 mm facets that formed near the surface as NSF and/or SH.

shows the importance of understanding the quality of the shear.

[goldenboy]

^^^ I noticed that too. The slide was on a really warm day, on a sunny slope in the afternoon. If the profile was on the following day, I wonder how much the scores would change vs. when the slope was actually skied.

[Orange Julius]

...or possibly you would have seen CTE's where they were at the sweet spot on that slope.