Level I Avalanche Course in SoCal
Avalanche professional Jeff Pierce will be teaching a Level I avalanche course in the Southern California region next week, with classroom work scheduled for 7-10 p.m. February 24 and 26, and in-the-field work on Feb 28 and March 1 at Mount Waterman. Price including lift ticket is only $200. According to Jeff, the course will be a modified Level I with more emphasis on snow pit study and stability tests.
Jeff has been teaching Level I and II avalanche courses for 11 years, and he has over 23 years experience in the field, including consulting for local resorts and government agencies as well as doing control at Mount Waterman and June Mountain ski areas. If you’re in town, don’t miss this chance to learn more about our local snowpack with an established professional. This would also be an excellent opportunity to meet like-minded backcountry partners in our area.
For more info and to sign up, contact Jeff at pierce_group@msn.com or 626-335-1923.
Posted in Avy News | 1 Comment
Avalung Avalanche Video
Black Diamond has posted a POV video of skier Chris Cardello getting caught and buried in an avalanche in Haines, Alaska. Chris was wearing a Black Diamond Avalung at the time, and was able to use it to breathe beneath the snow. Others in Chris’ party found and dug him out in a speedy five minutes—though watching the video, five minutes seems a long time indeed.
We don’t really have good data on how effective a survival tool the Avalung actually is, but there are a few confirmed incidents like these in which people were able to use them successfully in an actual burial. Avalungs seem especially appropriate for those who are placing themselves at higher than normal risk. Ie, heliskiers, film skiers, or rescue professionals. One thing to take away from this video: notice how fast things go bad from the appearance of the first fracture lines. The situation was beyond the skiers control in a matter of seconds.
more info at Black Diamond
finder’s fee: Lou at Wild Snow
Posted in Avy News, Skiing | 1 Comment
3rd In-Bounds Avalanche Fatality of Season
According to the Jackson Hole Daily, a skier was killed Saturday, December 27, at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort by an in-bounds avalanche, making this the third in-bounds avalanche fatality of the 08-09 season.
Statistically, in-bounds avalanches at ski resorts are extremely rare. Three such incidents at the start of this year’s season can thus be viewed as either a dramatic anomaly…or perhaps an early warning of a disturbing new trend (more…)
Posted in Avy News | 4 Comments
ESAC Issues First Avalanche Advisory
The Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center has issued its first Avalanche Advisory for the 08-09 season. And the verdict is…Insufficient Data. But it’s a start!
(Sue says she should have some field observations up later this week)
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LA Climber Among K2 Survivors
On August 1, 2008, Hermosa Beach climber Nicholas Rice awoke after a freezing night at Camp IV and made his way to just below the “Bottleneck”.
Rice, 23, was attempting to climb K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, widely considered one of the world’s most difficult summit (and one of the most deadly).
The Bottleneck, as the name implies, was an exposed section of the climbing route where climbers were dependent on fixed ropes set by other climbers and Sherpas for passage up and down. In this way, the Bottleneck is similar to Mount Everest’s Hillary Step. Unlike the Hilary Step, however, the Bottleneck lay beneath a system of ice seracs—towering and unstable blocks of ice.
That morning at camp, Nick had spilled water on his socks, getting them wet. Consequently he got a late start that day. After about an hour of climbing, Nick (who was climbing without oxygen) still wasn’t warming up. He decided the prudent course of action was to turn back, and he did so, returning to Camp IV. After resting at camp for several hours, Nick decided to continue descending. Other climbers continued upward.
Soon after that, Nick learned that the ice blocks overhanging the Bottleneck had broken loose in an avalanche, killing three climbers and stranding others above by destroying the fixed ropes.
Like the events described in John Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, the K2 avalanche has a ghoulish quality that lingers in the imagination. Discovering that the ropes—their lifeline—had been cut, the trapped climbers’ options were extremely limited. I expect we’ll see a great deal of coverage on this tragedy as more details emerge.
Nick has posted regular dispatches of his climb, including the avalanche and rescue efforts, on his website.
Posted in 8000m Peaks, Avy News, Climbing | 0 Comments
Mountain High Avalanches – Incident Report
THIS MORNING, I got the opportunity to speak with Jeff Pierce, who was the Site Commander for two of the three avalanches that took place in the vicinity of Mountain High ski area on 25 January 2008 in the San Gabriel Mountains. Jeff was also kind enough to share photos of the scene.
Jeff is Southern California’s Avalanche Adviser for local resorts and government agencies, and has over 20 years of experience in the field. In addition to participating in the rescue and recovery operation, Jeff also recorded observations of two of the slides, including crown profiles.
Jeff’s observations answer a number of questions I had regarding these avalanches—and they also raise a disturbing echo with a theme I discussed with Amber Seyler a few weeks ago.
Let’s start by looking at the snowpack prior to the arrival of the big storm. Thanks to a period of warm weather, a hard melt-freeze crust formed above approximately one to two feet of unconsolidated winter snow, of which Jeff observed 8-12″ was heavily faceted, with crystals in the one to two millimeter diameter range.
Jeff was concerned that heavy snowfall on top of this snowpack could potentially collapse the faceted layer or not bond well to the existing crust layer, leading to failures, and he expressed his concern to local ski area personnel prior to the storm’s arrival. Given the forecasts of imminent heavy snow, he expected an avalanche cycle in the San Gabriel Mountains—though principally in the Mount Baldy-Mount Waterman region.
When the storm did arrive, it arrived cold, which is somewhat atypical for Southern California storms, and which raises bonding concerns, as cold snow would be less likely to bond securely with the snowpack’s icy melt-freeze surface crust.
The storm also featured considerable Orographic Lifting, which meant that the initial snow fell as 2-3cm of graupel. On top of this fell 50cm of more typical, dense Southern California snow.
Following the avalanches, which occurred on Friday, Jeff arrived with a control team on Saturday to examine the scene. The team intended to ski cut Sawmill Canyon’s walls to trigger any remaining instability, however, they observed such severe remaining avalanche hazard that they determined it was unsafe to proceed without clearing the area first with explosives (which were not available). Fortunately, the east ridge, which the control team had chosen as a safe route, descended directly to the third accident site, allowing them to perform the final recovery.
Jeff observed numerous naturally-triggered slides. In his words, they were “everywhere” on north, northeast, and northwest aspects. Jeff attempted to isolate a representative column for compression analysis, and recorded a value of “CTV Q1 x 3 @ 50cm”, meaning the column failed during isolation—the weakest possible result—and failed with the cleanest possible shear interface.
In other words, avalanche danger was High on all N, NE, and NW facing slopes. This was a hair-trigger snowpack: a heavy layer of dense snow sitting atop ball bearings sitting atop a hard, icy crust.
Jeff observed abundant evidence of this instability, including seeing shooting cracks on upper ridges and hearing whoomphs as the snowpack collapsed. Based on his conversations with survivors of the slides, it is evident that the victims saw similar evidence of instability at the time they were skiing.
Jeff describes one of the slides as featuring perhaps the worst terrain trap he’d ever seen: a relatively broad, loaded area that fed into an extremely narrow gully. In fact, one of the fatal slides dropped perhaps only 60 vertical feet, yet buried the victim some 9-11 feet deep. At this depth of burial, Jeff notes that the skier’s partners had no possibility of digging him out in time to prevent asphyxiation.
The slope angle at the crown was 36 to 37°—within a point of the magic number for slab avalanches: 38°
The slide in Government Canyon was larger, with a 3-4 foot crown, and a run of some 200 yards that dropped 1000 vertical feet—big enough to snap mature trees.
In speaking to Jeff, it was evident that he was greatly disturbed that a number of highly experienced backcountry skiers chose to ski the backcountry at a time when evidence of hazardous instability was so overwhelming. Jeff indicated he spoke to other avalanche professionals about this, noting we have all fallen victim to the lure of powder and sometimes that clouds our judgment.
In Jeff’s opinion, the most salient contributing factor was the victims’ high level of familiarity with the area in which they were skiing. They had skied Sawmill Canyon on numerous occasions for years and had never experienced conditions in the area exactly like this before. This is worth repeating, as it is perhaps the single most deadly scenario which experts can face: they were on their home turf facing a set of conditions that lay outside their knowledge base.
In addition to familiarity with the area, topography itself must also be considered a factor. Viewing Jeff’s photos above, it’s easy to see how this relatively benign, treed-hillside might not appear threatening (it certainly would not have automatically made my hair stand up). The skiers may have believed they were traveling avalanche-safe terrain.
Still, it remains difficult to accept that experienced skiers would knowingly proceed in the face of such considerable signs of danger. This is a recurring theme in avalanche incidents that demands our attention. I must admit, my own thinking on this subject is evolving. It would be easy to dismiss these events as the natural result of human folly, but if that is so, it is the sort of folly we are all uniquely vulnerable to, however impressive our level of experience or judgment.
In confronting avalanche hazard, it is clearly not enough to look inside the snowpack. We must also look inside ourselves.
photos: Jeff Pierce
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Interview: Amber Seyler | ‘A Dozen More Turns’
A Dozen More Turns is one of those rare films that gets under your skin.
I admit to being an expert when it comes to finding ways to avoid thinking about consequences (Andrew McLean calls this “creative rationalization”), but ADMT managed to grab me in a way no other avalanche film ever has.
As a piece of filmmaking, A Dozen More Turns could have gone wrong at any number of turns.
First-time director Amber Seyler deserves considerable credit for successfully navigating the treacherous landscape of a devastating avalanche on Montana’s Mount Nemesis, and the avalanche of commentary and recriminations that undoubtedly followed. Her film is jarringly-neutral in retelling the events of the Nemesis Avalanche, which to my eye contain an unmistakable aspect of mystery.
It is easy, at first, to dismiss Sam Kavanagh (the film’s central character) and his friends as a bunch of enthusiastic but foolish young men who court their own disaster. Yet as the film reveals more information about this group of backcountry skiers, we soon learn the full story is a great deal more complex.
As soon as I saw the film, I knew I wanted to talk to Amber about it. Luckily, she generously agreed to share her time and discuss the film. SierraDescents has perhaps been negligent in not more directly addressing the avalanche hazard we all face when we choose to enter the backcountry. Here is a first step in remedying that omission. I hope you find it illuminating.
» Amber Seyler | ‘A Dozen More Turns’
Posted in Avy News, Skiing | 0 Comments
LA Times: “A Deadly Quest”
Today’s Los Angeles Times has more coverage on the Mountain High/Wrightwood Avalanches, with some commentary from avalanche professionals:
“There have been avalanche fatalities since people have been in the Alps, but what has changed is the equipment has gotten better and there’s a lot of hype associated with the outdoor retail industry,” said Sue Burak, an avalanche forecaster for the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center. “They’re encouraging people to go out, and the level of backcountry skills haven’t caught up with the technology.”
And:
“In Southern California, having these big dumps of powder are not real common,” said Northwest Avalanche Institute expert Paul Baugher. “And so there’s two things going on here. One is, people are sort of unfamiliar with how dangerous this can be. Even if you’re a professional, you don’t have that experience of actually seeing these [avalanches] released. On top of that, it’s so rare. It’s wonderful skiing, and you’re drawn to that.”
Here’s the full article.
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3 Avalanche Fatalaties in San Gabriel Mts.
Three people died yesterday in at least two separate avalanches near Mountain High ski resort, in the San Gabriel Mountains. According to the Los Angeles Times, the incidents occurred in Government and Sawmill Canyons, both of which border Mountain High East. These Canyons, which are out-of-bounds, are treed but relatively open. Both canyons run north-south. At this time, I’ve seen no reports on which aspects slid, though it would be reasonable to suspect something northeasterly.
The last time I asked, Mountain High did not permit backcountry access from its lifts. However, the bordering canyons are well known for their glades and powder. Site Admin Mitch at Telemark Tips writes, “The dirty little secret among a handful of veteran patrollers and a few of their friends is that we would go in there when we judged it relatively safe. It was just too good. And with a high speed lift at the bottom, it was kind of a personal, untracked powder paradise.”
I’ll try to get more information about the avalanche specifics. For now, I’ll speculate it’s possible the slide went off a rain crust—Mountain High’s 7000-8000′ elevation is in the prime range for rain at the front wave of each storm, and I observed naturally-triggered slabs on icy northeast aspects near Mount Baldy a week ago (more…)
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Telluride Poacher Video: ‘We Gotta Get Out of Here’
It’s not exactly cutting-edge Gonzo filmmaking, but this helmet-cam video (edited by the Telluride Daily Planet) is certainly a poignant reminder that sometimes those annoying “cliff” signs really do mean…Cliff.
Earlier this season two young skiers from Texas decided to duck under the rope at the extreme west end of Telluride’s Gold Hill, tempted by the sight of untracked powder. Being members of the tech generation, they naturally decided to video themselves, which was no doubt of great value to the sheriff’s department. Both were subsequently charged with Reckless Endangerment.
The video does run on the long side, at eight-plus minutes, but the moment when they break through the trees to discover their line is completely cliffed-out is priceless. Soon after that, they trigger an avalanche that knocks one of them over the cliff (this part of the mountain is closed, after all, not only because of the cliffs but also the extremely high avalanche danger).
Incredibly, neither kid was seriously injured, though their effort remains a potent entry for this year’s Darwin Awards.
Williamson - Bairs Creek Cirque
Langley - Northeast Couloir
Tyndall - North Rib
Bloody Mtn - Bloody Couloir
Thermarest Dreamtime
