Near death experience: caught by an avy

**greg** · 03-31-2006, 01:10 PM

thanks richard and thanks kanutten for sharing. glad you are alright.

**powstash** · 03-31-2006, 01:13 PM

WHOA! So glad you're still with us mang. Makes me remember to pay even more attention to the inner voice of reason.

**Tuckerman** · 03-31-2006, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by KANUTTEN

When we reached about 3500 we heard some of those not so good thumping sounds from the snow.

Nice to see you made it out. I have a question you can hear the snow moving under you? Is that common?

**Lone Star** · 03-31-2006, 01:48 PM

Something tells me Richard won't be buying his own beers for a long while....

Glad you made it out safe. Thanks for the reminder that it's possible to get into trouble on very short pitches, too. and a

for your buddy.

**H-man** · 03-31-2006, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Tuckerman

Nice to see you made it out. I have a question you can hear the snow moving under you? Is that common?

I believe the technical tern is Whumpf. Seriously. Ask Sarge.

Seriously again, this is a great resource by one of our own.

**mojorisin** · 03-31-2006, 02:35 PM

LoneStar, looks like somebody spoke out. Good on ya... (and real glad that you're alive)

**TurxSki** · 03-31-2006, 05:15 PM

Fucking Hell ! Too close.
Glad you made it out. "Never ski alone" was *almost* not good enough

I'm taking a nice deep breath as I read. Whew !

**summit** · 03-31-2006, 05:21 PM

glad you got out of that ok!
thank you for sharing

can you talk more about the snow conditions, slide details, or do you have any pictures?

**upallnight** · 03-31-2006, 05:35 PM

I'm so glad you are both alive & safe -- and I'm very grateful that you shared this story. This kind of information is excellent for the group at-large to have. Such stories of "close calls" remind us all to be careful out there.

Originally Posted by KANUTTEN

The general avvy forecast for the area was 2, so we figured everything would be relatively safe.

This equates to "Moderate" hazard in the US; this is the forecast level when most skiers are caught in avalanches as they (we/I) are thinking things are a bit more stable than they really are, so we get a bit over-confident and venture onto steeper terrain.

Thanks again for sharing.

**Atrain505** · 03-31-2006, 05:42 PM

Solid read. Thanks for sharing and mighty glad you walked away.

**iskibc** · 03-31-2006, 05:55 PM

Glad you are alright. Sobering story indeed. Thank you for sharing. Stories like these are great learning experiences for everyone travelling in the backcountry.

**Cirquerider** · 03-31-2006, 07:00 PM

I experienced the hyperventilating with nothing to breath, after falling into a treewell earlier this year. This will seem like a bigger deal the day AFTER it happens. Bet you don't make the same mistakes twice. Thanks for sharing the story. Did your friend end up above you or below?

**serge944** · 03-31-2006, 07:46 PM

I know how scary it can be when you start panicking. I was doing some underwater swimming at a local lake with a lot of submerged rocks/crevices that I explored. One time, I got stuck in a pretty narrow opening for a few seconds - start panicking, ran out of my breath immediately, but was able to get free and back up for air. Such relief.

Glad to hear you survived!

**splat** · 03-31-2006, 08:54 PM

That was some fukkin hairball shit, KANUTTEN.
I'd take a blow to the head with a shovel any day to get out of that.
...had to be the sweetest of pains.
you're gonna buy him a probe, yes?

**FigureEleven** · 03-31-2006, 09:22 PM

Thanks for sharing. Glad it all worked out in the end. Scary shit for sure.

**greg** · 04-01-2006, 04:12 AM

Originally Posted by upallnight

This equates to "Moderate" hazard in the US; this is the forecast level when most skiers are caught in avalanches as they (we/I) are thinking things are a bit more stable than they really are, so we get a bit over-confident and venture onto steeper terrain.

equating is probably a bit far fetched. I'm not sure but I think you cannot directly compare the scales. that said, by far the most lethal avalanche accidents happen at level three in europe.

**KANUTTEN** · 04-01-2006, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Tippster

HOLY CRAP! Glad you're OK!

Side question: What kind of beacon was he using, or did he spot you visually?

He used a barryvox. We had, luckily, just had a training session with it before we left. I was completely buried. Finding me was relatively easy though, as it was a little slide. Prolly like a 5*5 meters possible finding area. The problem was that he was partially underneath as well, so it took some time for him to get out too. Also he didn't hit me with his probe (no I'm not gay

). He hadn't trained with that before, and didn't really know how it should feel when he hit me. So that is one lesson; train with the probe too. He started digging where he thought the beacon gave the strongest signal. He actually missed me by a little distance. But I in my semi-conscious state reacted to that and started to make sounds - those sounds was what directed him to me.

Fuck; it was a really close call. If he had been buried deeper... If he hadn't known his beacon... If I had been fully unconscious when he dug beside me... And this was on this silly little slope that I know a lot of people would say can not be dangerous. Well - it can!

**KANUTTEN** · 04-01-2006, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by KillingCokes

WOW!!!! Really glad you're ok. You should buy a lottery ticket.

Instead of second guessing or whatever, I'll ask a question or two.

What did you learn from this?
How can it help you in the BC in the future?

Do you have any pics of the area/crown?

KC; I think what I kick myself most for is the fact that WE MADE THE RIGHT ANALYSIS but chose to disregard it. And that is something others can learn from too, I think. The right decision would involve losing maybe 10 vertical meters and walk for maybe 10 more minutes. I guess we where a bit tired, and we didn't want that extra physical effort. Such stupid facts can make you have.. sort of a mental collaps. The decision process between the two of us were a bit strange. The moment I said; "this can come off" I should have done the right thing....

**KANUTTEN** · 04-01-2006, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by bbirtle

Whoa! A little too close to home... I was nearly with these guys and waffled at the last minute.

Glad to hear you're ok, Kanutten. Holy hell that's scary.

Any photos of the thing? And yeah, any lessons learned would be good to hear. Was the slope wind loaded? If not, where did the instability come from?

Good reminder that bc is dangerous as well that even a small slope can be deadly.

Hi Brian. Too bad hmmm

you couldn't make it

It was a windloaded slope, but as said avvy danger 2. The slab itself was pretty thick; I estimate 0.5 meter. Southerly aspect, and a warmer day I think weakened the layer. We did hear thumping sounds down below, so I really got all the Q's I could ask for...

**bbirtle** · 04-01-2006, 10:40 AM

Thanks for the feedback Kanutten. One of the best ways to learn from avalanches, unfortunately, is to analyze the incidents, IMO.

Good advice on the beacon training... I think it's time for a beacon search (and crevass rescue) afternoon for me and my friends and suggest others do the same.

(I'm off to Jungfraujoch on Monday, probably, although hope it doesn't involve an avalanche! Sorry to miss you - next time let's see if we can make it a triple burial.

)

**leroy jenkins** · 04-01-2006, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by KANUTTEN

I was under for 10 minutes

Holy shit. You are lucky to be alive. Whats the statistic? At the ten miute mark only something like 10% survival rate?

**Vets** · 04-01-2006, 11:36 PM

Glad to hear that you are okay. Scary shit.
Thanks for sharing and good that you were able to.

**Hicks** · 04-02-2006, 09:09 AM

Shit happens quickly, glad you walked out unharmed.

**hev** · 04-02-2006, 09:16 AM

Damn Kanutten. Foggy and I are finding the route finding and avalanche evaluation to be on a whole different level here in the alps compared to what were used to back in the rockies. We have been playing it conservative when we can but have found ourselves getting into situations that got a little scary especially down low having to navigate wet snow with lots of wet snow slides ripping out everywhere. Mega cliffs and crevasces are new obstacles for us. Glad your out with smart partners and got rescued succsefully.

**bbirtle** · 04-02-2006, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by hev

Damn Kanutten. Foggy and I are finding the route finding and avalanche evaluation to be on a whole different level here in the alps compared to what were used to back in the rockies. We have been playing it conservative when we can but have found ourselves getting into situations that got a little scary especially down low having to navigate wet snow with lots of wet snow slides ripping out everywhere. Mega cliffs and crevasces are new obstacles for us. Glad your out with smart partners and got rescued succsefully.

The situation is very dangerous during the afternoons right now, IMO. Rain-snow level is way above 2000m so once the sun starts baking it's not long before it starts to let off everywhere - basically I haven't been touring anywhere below 2500m because of this, which is pretty much everywhere but the Midi. Even up there, late afternoons are risky. Do be careful.

What's your impression of avo safety in Cham' coming from the US? My take is that people are completely nuts, and regularly ski insane things in risky conditions, due to the intense competition for fresh lines...

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