East Coast Roll Call 23/24_The Guns Are Blowing

[east or bust]

Thanks for the responses everyone, sealing the deal on Platty. That photo helped ^

I would much rather ski thin cover at a relatively uncrowded hill with decent pitch than Belleayre, think I knew that but needed the positive reinforcement.

Will try to post a lil TR when the time comes.

[Vt-Freeheel]

The Driven One shared this vid with us from his buddy Chip and crew at Whitegrass. Pretty cool community

[waxloaf]

There was wind events on and off for days before this event no? The avalanche report seems to say that eh? The thing about wind transport and slab development is there's plenty of inconsistency through the snowpack so a cut here and a pit there probably isn't telling you much with that kind of spacial variability. One thing you can be assure of if there's an area (especially as confined as this line that slid) that is loaded up with enough snow that the coverage looks good to ski with obvious scoured areas all around it's likely (or actually extremely obvious) been loaded by said wind events. that dude charged right into a very questionable spot and now his leg is all f-d up. It may never be quite the same and for what? some mediocre early season turns for the gram? Nah, this BS about them having good intel, making good decisions and yada yada is just that, BS. If there's anything people should be learning its to read the avalanche report then watch his slide footage so they can actually put the two together. All of the red flags were there, they may not be idiots but they definitely fucked up.

The attention from the powder mag article from this guys November shit snow skiing up there probably didn't help with his decision making process.

MWAC isn’t forecasting yet so there wasn’t a report for that day or prior days. Further cause for caution.

Cat’s key point is the one that resonates most with me - there were multiple slides reported on the prior day, so that should have been a huge red flag. And it doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of snow science to pick up on it.

Not going to pile on here otherwise. I appreciate the transparency and the team clearly did a good job getting him stable and out after the event.


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[365wp]

[buckethead]

^^wow, nice!

Plattekill is the shit man. It was my second favorite place to go ski after MRG my last two seasons out East in the early 90's. 93-94 being my last year out there was their best snow year ever. It's awesome when they have natural snow coverage. It's the soul cookie of the Catskills. I would love to get back there this season. I'm seriously jealous.

well put. i've skied some my deepest days ever there. and many of my best. at half the drive time to MRG it most often wins out on pow days.

east or bust: might not be thin cover either
glad you made the right choice. you won't regret.

[adrian.bee]

Pretty sure today will be my single day high post count. Here are a couple Instagram videos and posts about the avalanche in Airplane gully. Note if you have been in a serious avalanche these videos are graphic and maybe hard to watch.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0ujv...5NUcLoE1MAdSMc

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0ui8...AkPywrspH8FLq8

uhhhh sir.. your foot is facing the wrong direction and you got the snow all red

[Bottleman]

The Original General Store!




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[raisingarizona13]

MWAC isn’t forecasting yet so there wasn’t a report for that day or prior days. Further cause for caution.

Cat’s key point is the one that resonates most with me - there were multiple slides reported on the prior day, so that should have been a huge red flag. And it doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of snow science to pick up on it.

Not going to pile on here otherwise. I appreciate the transparency and the team clearly did a good job getting him stable and out after the event.


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Ahh, I thought I saw or read a report for that day from the Avalanche center. That and some of the responses on the skiers IG amount definitely irked me pretty good. the skier is extremely lucky. Hopefully people can put the conditions and the footage together to better understand wind events and slab formation. There aren't any places on MW where I'd ever want to go for a ride like that, the exposure is really scary.

[raisingarizona13]

Actually...this was posted on the 10th

A strong low pressure system enters the forecast area over the next 48 hours, bringing above freezing temperatures and the possibility for 1.5 to 3 inches of rain. Winds will be strong out of the southwest with gusts of 100 mph possible on the summit of Mount Washington.

The storm will then transition to colder temperatures and 5 - 12 inches of snow are possible with 60-70 mph northwest winds. This system will exit the area by late Monday night and temperatures will remain cold through mid-week.

And....

THE BOTTOM LINE
New rain, snow and wind will create dangerous avalanche conditions where snow exists in steep terrain. Watch out for isolated pockets of unstable snow at middle and upper elevations that could avalanche spontaneously or from the weight of a person. Avalanches and long sliding falls can be highly consequential due to exposed hazards like rocks and trees in the early season snowpack.

An experienced back country skier would have naturally observed these conditions and should expect these dangers to exist. The report though, doubles down on what you would think the conditions would be like.

they f-d up. That's ok, everyone f-s up but let's not act surprised and say that they did everything they could to stay safe that day. The report was there, the flags were there, they decide not to read them appropriately.

Some of the comments on his IG post suggest that even though they did everything they could to mitigate risks avalanches can still occur. that's the wrong message people should be getting from this incident.

[waxloaf]

Ah you’re right. I assumed (wrongly) that since MWAC wasn’t doing official hazard forecasts that they weren’t doing any reports at all. Thanks for pointing that out.


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[Jonathan S.]

There was wind events on and off for days before this event no? The avalanche report seems to say that eh? The thing about wind transport and slab development is there's plenty of inconsistency through the snowpack so a cut here and a pit there probably isn't telling you much with that kind of spacial variability. One thing you can be assure of if there's an area (especially as confined as this line that slid) that is loaded up with enough snow that the coverage looks good to ski with obvious scoured areas all around it's likely (or actually extremely obvious) been loaded by said wind events. that dude charged right into a very questionable spot and now his leg is all f-d up. It may never be quite the same and for what? some mediocre early season turns for the gram? Nah, this BS about them having good intel, making good decisions and yada yada is just that, BS. If there's anything people should be learning its to read the avalanche report then watch his slide footage so they can actually put the two together. All of the red flags were there, they may not be idiots but they definitely fucked up.

The attention from the powder mag article from this guys November shit snow skiing up there probably didn't help with his decision making process.

Quoted for emphasis.

Although another TGR poster previously made the same points far more succinctly, as copied below.
(Just substitute some combination of aspect & terrain for the emphasis on elevation in his post, as Airplane Gully is a top-down kind of line.)

[buckethead]

hubris can kill.
that footage of the release should appear at the top of the
MWAC page. no joke.

[ex-powderbroker]

what’s this powmag piece people are talking about?

[raisingarizona13]

what’s this powmag piece people are talking about?

https://www.powder.com/trending-news...ovember-skiing

[Jonathan S.]

what’s this powmag piece people are talking about?

That's a reference to a different avalanche incident from years ago in the post whose screen capture I copied into my comment.
But it's all the same underlying cause:
"[...] push it until the margin of safety is gone and then act surprised when something happens."

The add'l element this time was that a skier had been flushed out of a line in Tucks (losing both skis and both poles, yet otherwise unharmed) only two days earlier.
Is Airplane Gully supposed to be magically different than Chute somehow?

[ex-powderbroker]

https://www.powder.com/trending-news...ovember-skiing

hubris can kill.
that footage of the release should appear at the top of the
MWAC page. no joke.

thanks!

“As Dominic says, though, maybe give it a minute.”

yeesh.

hard to do the right thing i guess.

[buckethead]

https://www.powder.com/trending-news...ovember-skiing

that's some bony, low-tide survival skiing.
puckered turns...looked not terribly enjoyable...even before the bottoming out towards the end.

i just watched the slide footage with sound on. like a glorifyingly schmaltzy made-for-tv drama.
a cautionary voiceover narrative (how we f-ed up...don't do this), no music needed, would have shown a bit more good faith.

[buckethead]

on a happier note:
opening official

[grinch]

Cat to the courtesy phone. Your box is full. No rush. Ill check back in

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[DoWork]

The Driven One shared this vid with us from his buddy Chip and crew at Whitegrass. Pretty cool community

Enormous understatement! Chip and the boys at WG (conveniently located between Canaan Valley and Timberline ski areas) are about the most welcoming and fun crew- not to mention I believe it was Chip that was throwing backies on xc gear in deep mank? Insane. We partied and skied with them for a few days during the hurricane Sandy shenanigans, they showed us all over and passed around the moonshine until uncle was uttered. A truly classic place and time, they are salt of the earth peeps for sure.

[365wp]

It was nice out there today

[ex-powderbroker]

Domino maybe?

[m2711c]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0ujv...5NUcLoE1MAdSMc

am i the only one to find it odd that a soundtrack was added to this clip? what was the point of that?

[365wp]

Domino maybe?

Close, Moonshine.

[buckethead]

am i the only one to find it odd that a soundtrack was added to this clip? what was the point of that?

was it added since yesterday? i only turned on the sound this eve and commented on it above. gave off a self-aggrandizing vibe. a sense that it's all about posting vids and harvesting eyeballs and clicks.
milking a tragic mishap.