Avalanche in Colorado

[davedlg 0]

Not the hockey team, the real thing.

Some friends and I were standing on top of Mt. Crested Butte on saturday when we watched a massive avalanche unfold across the valley. The avalanche was triggered by 5 very lucky skiers, who managed not to get caught up in the slide.

I had my camera out, and actually caught images of the area 1 minute before the slide, during the middle of the slide, and at the end of the slide. The first two pictures are a bit blurry and out of focus because I was not taking pictures of the slide area itself, these were captured in the background of other pictures. If you look closely, you can see the ski tracks leading down to the trees between the two slabs.

scary shit.

[GQ_jumper 4]

They were ether very smart or very lucky, the tracks are perfectly placed between two potential failure zones, just looking at the two bowls they have the perfect potential to fail and create a slide and the area in between is prefectly stable. So the skiers either knew what they were doing or they hit the jackpot that day and should go buy a lotto ticket.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Wow that is a huge slide. Two massive bowls let loose. BTW ... this has been a bad year for avalanches in Alberta and BC with many deaths already and we are only in February.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[davedlg 0]

Quote

They were ether very smart or very lucky, the tracks are perfectly placed between two potential failure zones, just looking at the two bowls they have the perfect potential to fail and create a slide and the area in between is prefectly stable. So the skiers either knew what they were doing or they hit the jackpot that day and should go buy a lotto ticket.

I think it was a combination of luck and smarts. According to the locals, the guy was a well-known professional teaching a class on mountain ski guiding. The only issue is see, is the runout from where they were skiing crosses through the slide path. Here is the Colorado avalanche information center's report on the slide:

Quote

"Saturday afternoon a party of 5 skiers remotely triggered two sizable slabs, likely hard slabs, off White Mountain in the East River Drainage. Estimates are that they were 50 to 100 feet away from the crowns when the slabs failed. The East River has been an active avalanche area during and after this last storm cycle. These two slabs ran off SSE aspects from initial reports, starting above treeline, around 11,000 feet. They ran pretty much wall to wall, about 400 feet wide, were rated R4D4, and left an estimated 20 feet of debris in the run out. An interesting note from an observer said the debris ran 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile out into the flats. Perfect route selection looks to have kept the skiers out of harms way."

[riddler 0]

Crusty-Butt is one of the last great places to ski in Colorado. It's also some really awesome off-road biking

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[The111 1]

Wow, I was just there in December... only the second time in my life I'd ever seen snow! Boarded all the green and blue runs and had a lot of fun. Saw no avalanches.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Wow that is a huge slide. Two massive bowls let loose. BTW ... this has been a bad year for avalanches in Alberta and BC with many deaths already and we are only in February.

Its been hella bad here in the North Cascades. I tried to get up to Stevens yesterday....closed at Milepost 59.. 20 miles hosrt of the pass

Stevens and Snoqualmie Pass have been closed so much over the last couple weeks ( US2 and I-90 respectively) that getting across them.. let alone getting to Alpental Stevens Etc has been a major crap shoot. When they close them for avalance control nothing moves and its been a daily thing for a while now...

And no way I am going to try Mt Baker... that is even a higher and more dangerous road to push your luck on.

I used to do a LOT of back country skiiing but....I consider it to be the MOST dangerous sport I EVER participated in.. I have managed to get myself into 3 avalanches and lived....that is way too many lives to have used up... so I stick to the resort areas and stay out of the back country.. and no more heli-skiing... I reallly do want to stay alive.