4 missing weller lake indi pass area

[skideeppow]

Any one have any info on this. I have been hearing rumors of fatalities.

[iskibc]

Right here:

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=66327

RIP.

[FigureEleven]

Wow... I can see this from my porch. Also saw Flight for Life go by this afternoon. So unfortunate. RIP

[Rontele]

RIP. That is very sad considering what a beautiful day it was in the mountains.

[pistechica]

ASPEN — Two people died Tuesday in a huge avalanche near Independence Pass. They were skiing with a third person, Jason Luck, 33, of Arvada, Colo., who survived the slide, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office.

The threesome were backcountry skiing on Sunshine Peak — officially named Mt. Shimer — when an avalanche occurred that was described by rescue personnel as “massive” and “enormous.”

The victims — one from New York City and one from Buenos Aires, Argentina — were completely buried, according to Pitkin County Deputy Jeff Lumsden.

Luck and his companions had driven to the Independence Pass winter closure gate on Highway 82, east of Aspen, and parked two vehicles. They then took two snowmobiles two miles to the Weller Lake trailhead and skinned toward Sunshine Peak, Lumsden said.

Search and rescue personnel said ski tracks from the three went into the avalanche area, roughly 200 feet below a fracture line that spanned much of the mountain and topped out at roughly 11,500 feet. The avalanche occurred sometime before Pitkin County received an emergency call from Luck at 2:58 p.m.

According to Lumsden, all three were caught in the slide, though it was unclear if Luck was partially buried or skied through the avalanche.

Luck uncovered one of the victims, who was unconscious but breathing at the time of the emergency call, Lumsden said. The other victim had been partially uncovered from 8 feet of snow, but was neither breathing nor conscious.

By 4 p.m., Mountain Rescue Aspen had a team of six heading up the highway toward the pass on snowmobiles borrowed from T-Lazy 7 Ranch. At the same time, an airplane and a helicopter were mobilized for the search. The airplane was over the avalanche area by 4:15 p.m.

The air ambulance helicopter, based in Summit County, flew a snow safety expert and medic to the scene by 4:30 p.m. From the ground, it had been determined there could be additional danger from a hanging cornice, but the safety expert cleared the area for the search.

When the helicopter landed, rescuers determined Luck was the only survivor.

By 4:45 p.m., other members of Mountain Rescue had arrived, including members of West Eagle Search and Rescue, based in El Jebel.

Luck returned to the winter gate on a snowmobile driven by a rescue team member at 5:30 p.m. He did not appear injured.

Luck walked to a Suburban with an attached trailer, then drove with a deputy to Aspen. Lumsden said Luck spoke with rescue personnel in Aspen and with mental health professionals on Tuesday evening.

The helicopter transported the two bodies off the peak and down to Weller, where snowmobiles and members of Mountain Rescue were waiting.

By 6:30 p.m., the first snowmobile arrived at the winter gate towing a sled with a body wrapped in a tarp. Soon afterward, a second snowmobile with another body reached the gate. On the second sled were a helmet, telemark skis and a yellow backpack.

The names of the victims are being withheld by Pitkin County, pending notification of next of kin. Cause of death will be determined by the Pitkin County coroner.

In all, five Pitkin County deputies, 15 members of Mountain Rescue and four members of West Eagle were involved in the operation. Everyone was out of the field by 7 p.m.

Joel Stonington’s e-mail address is jstonington@aspentimes.com

[powstash]

tough first post there pistechica. hope your next 1499 posts are on a more positive note.

RIP

[HikeforTurns]

that sucks bad. RIP guys......

[grskier]

RIP....

Too sad

[skideeppow]

I was wondering what they were doing on that aspect at 3 in the afternoon when temps where puishing 70 degrees in town?

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Any more on this? I guess there's 2 threads going about this avy....

[hutash]

Bummer

[Lloyd Braun]

I was wondering what they were doing on that aspect at 3 in the afternoon when temps where puishing 70 degrees in town?

making grave mistakes.........

[Knockneed Man]

Above Weller lake, there's a short steep section that leads to a huge low angle boulder field, above that a big apron connects to the upper cliffs... It sounds like they were on the apron, and its a perfect hot rock scenerio through there. What I couldnt understand in the article is if they were descending or still ascending. It sounds like they were possibly still ascending, albeit incredibly late?

[MakersTeleMark]

CAIC has a preliminary report up and will undoubtedly fill it in based upon their observations up there today:

http://avalanche.state.co.us/Acciden...n/20070313.htm

[Knockneed Man]

This from todays RFAC report: FYI, New York Peak is right beside Sunshine, in another ignored red flag... Edit: from the report, seems as if lots of red flags are being ignored... Whose the idgit that tried to ski the widowmaker in the midst of this cycle?


"Avalanche Activity: An avalanche accident occurred yesterday on Mt. Shimer, also known as Sunshine Peak, just SE of the Independence Pass winter trailhead. The crown was on a N-NW facing slope around 12,000ft. We will update with more details on this accident as they become available. A natural avalanche was observed yesterday on a NW aspect of New York Peak around 12,100ft (SS-N-R3-D2.5). This likely ran in the past 3 days. A natural avalanche occurred yesterday on an E aspect around 8,800ft, out of bounds from Trainors on Aspen Mtn. As many as nine natural wet slides, sizes D1 and D2, were observed on Mt. Daly yesterday. These occurred between 12,000ft and 12,400ft on NE-SE aspects, and were viewed from 12 miles away. A skier triggered slide occurred yesterday in the West Willow drainage at 11,500ft on a SE aspect of Widowmaker and ran 600ft (WS-AS-D2-O). This started as a point release resulting in a wet slab avalanche that was big enough to bury a person. Wet loose activity was observed yesterday on most aspects at elevations up to the lower alpine region. Two remotely skier triggered avalanches occurred this weekend on NW aspects of Highlands Ridge at treeline. Both of these ran big enough to bury a person, with crowns roughly 2ft deep. Another skier triggered slide was observed above treeline on a SE aspect of South Highlands Bowl on Sunday. Numerous natural avalanches occurred this weekend below treeline on E aspects in Marble."

[skideeppow]

I just saw the front page of the daily, what is wrong with those guys, a picutre of a body bag with the guys gear on top? WTF? HOw about a little respect.

[Shug]

Times like these call for selfless condolences. These guys are my friends and members of this community. If you cannot refrain from armchair quarterbacking, please keep it respectful. Let's keep this a learning experience and not a condemnation.

[smmokan]

^^^ I don't see any disrespect here- these guys are just trying to find out more information on what happened.

My condolences to the families involved.

[FigureEleven]

Above Weller lake, there's a short steep section that leads to a huge low angle boulder field, above that a big apron connects to the upper cliffs... It sounds like they were on the apron, and its a perfect hot rock scenerio through there. What I couldnt understand in the article is if they were descending or still ascending. It sounds like they were possibly still ascending, albeit incredibly late?

Judging from pictures... they were still ascending as the skis paired with the bodybag still had the skins on. Also note that the skiers were not caught in the massive slide that shows up in most of the pictures, but rather a smaller slide to the lookers right of Sunshine. The report on Lou Dawson's site indicates that the party saw the first large slide go and then minutes later were caught in the second one.

[Ermine]

Judging from pictures... they were still ascending as the skis paired with the bodybag still had the skins on. Also note that the skiers were not caught in the massive slide that shows up in most of the pictures, but rather a smaller slide to the lookers right of Sunshine. The report on Lou Dawson's site indicates that the party saw the first large slide go and then minutes later were caught in the second one.

I think I would have shat right there after watching that adjacent slope rip out like that while skinning a similar aspect, elevation and steepness. They very well could have triggered that big bowl from where they were or it could have been a natural? Hard slabs can be triggered from quite a distance. Tremper has a nice slideshow of a big natural on Gobblers (who knows, lots of folks in the Wasatch, maybe it was triggered as well?):

http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/photos...%20photos.jpg/

We all just need to remember we're heading into Spring and it's the "early to bed, early to rise" mantra when we have hard slabs over facets and it's warming up. I still have faith that April will bring some winter weather though, maybe sooner. If everything doesn't rip out ahead of time, we *may* have some relatively safe faceshots next month.

Survivor's last name was Luck. Poor kid probably needs some help after that experience. Condolences to family and friends.

[kailas]

I don't see any disrespect here, Skideepow knows of which he speaks. That slope is notorious for avalanches and has killed before. When the temps are global warmingly high its time to get out the bike or go boating!
Very sad to loose friends, I've lost around 20!

[freshie247]

Warm temps & late in the day are a very deadly combination.

Condolences.

Maybe they're going for shock factor with the pics, maybe they're also trying to give people some perspective, who knows?