Crystal Avi Death!!!!!!!!

[Lloyd Christmas]

Definitely shitty.

Be careful out there. According to NWAC website:

"High avalanche danger above 6000 feet and considerable
below Sunday with little change in the danger on
Sunday, with a slight decrease likely Sunday night."

Yet, people figure that if the patrol open lift accessed BC, then it must be safe. I rode Chair 2 at Alpental with some guy today, who told me about this Crystal death, yet was still headed out into the Alpental BC without a beacon, without avi knowledge, by himself!! F'ing crazy!

[Kenai]

So sad......
......becareful out there.

[BakerBunny]

Very sad. My condolences to the family.
But there is this question -- the second guy. The guy's partner - the guy who wasn't hurt. Did he have a transceiver? The body was recovered by the ski patrol over forty minutes after the burial. What did the partner do -- run to find the ski patrol?! If he had a transceiver and did not attempt to use it, isn't that negligent manslaughter?

[greenmachine]

rode w/ patrol on the lift today. said it was a huge slide and the guy was carried almost a mile through a lot of trees,etc. not sure if that kind of distance is possible but sounded pretty big, didn't sound like kind where survival probability was high. I'm pretty certain they both had transcievers.

[ccwaskier]

The kempers slide path runs all the way to 410 and the bottom the the valley, thousands of feet below, so a huge slide is definenly possible.

[fubar]

Talked to the Patrol today up at High Campbell. It wasnt Kempers, it was about halfway along the backside of High Campbell Ridge on the HWY 410 side.

The slide was 3000ft long, and the slab measured over 3ft deep where the avalanche gave way at the high point.

[silas]

They were in the National Park but NOT KEMPERS. It was NOT in a permanently closed area, out of bounds YES but closed NO.

Both solid skiers...Great guys...both were beeping.....bad luck.

The best to the family.....all long time Crystal Skiers.

Dont judge if you dont know.

If your really interested http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing...p?topic=6361.0 has the most accurate information I've seen at the bottom from skifish.

[BanditXXX]

There is just way too much good skiing inbounds @ Crystal to get greedy and risk skiing a closed margiinal area. Too each his own. And now he will rest in peace on the slope above.

I've skiied at Crystal for 32 years. There are still some little nooks and crannies that I have yet to discover inboundds. Stay safe, stay inbounds, get the goods that are available without getting stupid.

And live for tommorrow. Because tommorrow will bring more snow and even better conditions.

Condolence to the wife and children.

[BanditXXX]

They were in the National Park but NOT KEMPERS. It was NOT in a permanently closed area, out of bounds YES but closed NO.

Both solid skiers...Great guys...both were beeping.....bad luck.

The best to the family.....all long time Crystal Skiers.

Dont judge if you dont know.

If your really interested http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing...p?topic=6361.0 has the most accurate information I've seen at the bottom from skifish.

Bad luck ? I'd say poor judgement.

We don't judge, we give our honest opinions.

He made a poor choice and paid for it. Insensitive? No . It;s called reality. Wait until conditions settle, then hit the bc.

Closed or not, the guy is dead. Kempers or not. He's dead.

You can have all, the avy equipment known to man. But, when all hell breaks loose, mother nature rules .

Condolence to the wife and children.

[The Dad]

Very sad. My condolences to the family.
But there is this question -- the second guy. The guy's partner - the guy who wasn't hurt. Did he have a transceiver? The body was recovered by the ski patrol over forty minutes after the burial. What did the partner do -- run to find the ski patrol?! If he had a transceiver and did not attempt to use it, isn't that negligent manslaughter?

Pretty much an unequivocal "no" to the manslaughter question, assuming that he got the 'trollers. It would be a judgment call in any event, due to factors ranging from how good/modern his transceiver was to how good his skills with it were. In this instance, particularly taking into account the distance the victim reportedly traveled, getting more rescuers there -- particularly skilled ones -- was at least defensible, and may well have been the better alternative.

[FutureHermit]

with conditions like we have all been having, new snow massive windloads, and chilly temps avys are bound to happen we all have to keep in mind that big turns are not worth our lives. thoughts and prayers to the family and friends.....

[killclimbz]

This is so sad. It has been a very bad couple of weeks. My condolences to his family and friends.

[PNWbrit]

Just noticed NWAC accident report is already available.

Although trauma was cause of death it seems as if his partner was carrying victims spare beacon but no probe and shovel?

RIP

[Northway]

another article about the incident with some good information about the area this occured and the boundary issues there.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/advent...-5703492c.html

RIP Stan.

[cmor]

Of all the resorts I've skied, I have to say that the Crystal patrol seems to open sketchy avy prone terrain faster than just about anyone. Stated differently, while some will bitch about their local patrol being overly cautious, I think the opposite is true at Crystal. So if Southback is closed, there is a pretty good reason for it. I generally use Southback's open/closure status as a barometer to decide whether to venture out into the BC (the uncontrolled variety).

It can be very misleading to use South or North as an indicator, South is open on days where the avalanche danger is much higher than it was during this accident. A lot of it depends on having the avaiable manpower to shoot it. Talking with patrol about a/c results will also usually only give you indications about the last storm layer, and even then may be misleading because of the skier compaction on the weak layer that was formed on the surface.