mountainmanbri
05-20-2002, 01:57 PM
This is second hand knowledge but sounds legit. This was just reported from the past weekend. Pretty scary stuff.
Brian the USFS Snow Rangers. As we watched
skiers, I lamented how I felt bad that I was not
skiing but that I did not trust the snowpack given
many factors (new snow, wind deposition, slope
steepness, poor bonding to surface) and I remind
myself that all that it takes is just one incident
......
Roughly one half an hour later with the sun
brightly shining, we observed a skier
mischeviously skiing his way from above to the top
of The Lip, which is closed. We kept our eyes
focused on him as this meant the possibility for
some hi-jinx. As he cut through the powder, I
thought to myself that this could be a good chance
to witness an avalanche. He made a turn on the
skiers left which triggered a slough. Somehow,
this slough was just a bit too robust for comfort
and had a sinister look to it as it poured over a
crevasse and some brush poking through. As he
crossed over the crux of The Lip, he triggered a
living room sized slab with a crown that measured
roughly a foot - OH SH*T ! This crashed onto the
top of the virgin snowpack at the top of The Bowl
below The Lip and whaddya' know, we had a problem.
A bigger slab then released which was about 100
feet wide aimed for the Lunch Rocks and several
people below - OH MEGA SH*T !
We screamed out AVA-LAAAAANCHE and stayed behind
the rocks by the rescue cache yet in a position
where we could observe so that we could see what
"Sir Avalanche" (they command serious respect,
dude) would catch. The smooth graceful
exponential increase in speed of this slide was as
beautiful as it was frightening. The soft rumble
as it rushed by me roughly 10 meters away was an
exceptionally pretty sound. But it also meant
business as it seemingly had animate homicidal
feelings.
We were seiously worried about the people below
us, especially since they were from Quebec and
might not have understood what "avalanche" met.
After some initial hesitation, they fleed to
higher rocks, leaving gear behind. As I watched
it finish it's estimated 1,200 foot ride falling
600-700 vertical feet to the floor of the Bowl, I
tried very hard to spot anyone that might be
caught.
As it stopped, I heard a girl cough hard,
obviously choking a bit on the blast cloud of
spindrift snow. We all stepped down and screamed
out for everyone to account for their friends (how
the hell do you say that in French?).
Fortunately, nobody was caught and our nice
friends from the North thanked us for our concern.
Meanwhile, the skier that triggered it, somehow
rode it past Schiller's Rock (scene of last year's
all-nighter) and skied out of it to the skiers
right andinto the bowl. Fortunately, he did not
trigger another one there. Meanwhile, people from
below were screaming out "thanks a lot, a##hole"
to him. Later on, when fellow patroller Paul and
I were having a bull session with the Snow
Rangers, we lamented about how hard we had worked
to inform everyone of the existing dangers and
that The Lip was closed to all use. I am almost
positive that I recognized the skier that
triggered the slide and yes I did indeed inform
him.
You read this right - avalanches happen in New
England, they happen in May and they happen in
front of large groups of people which means that
there is no safety in numbers.
Just another weekend of drama on Mount Washington.
Carter Dome's noble sublime peak with the lightly
sugared conifers provided me with great eye candy
on the early evening hike down to the bottom of
Pinkham Notch. Gawd I love this scene!
Get psyc
Brian the USFS Snow Rangers. As we watched
skiers, I lamented how I felt bad that I was not
skiing but that I did not trust the snowpack given
many factors (new snow, wind deposition, slope
steepness, poor bonding to surface) and I remind
myself that all that it takes is just one incident
......
Roughly one half an hour later with the sun
brightly shining, we observed a skier
mischeviously skiing his way from above to the top
of The Lip, which is closed. We kept our eyes
focused on him as this meant the possibility for
some hi-jinx. As he cut through the powder, I
thought to myself that this could be a good chance
to witness an avalanche. He made a turn on the
skiers left which triggered a slough. Somehow,
this slough was just a bit too robust for comfort
and had a sinister look to it as it poured over a
crevasse and some brush poking through. As he
crossed over the crux of The Lip, he triggered a
living room sized slab with a crown that measured
roughly a foot - OH SH*T ! This crashed onto the
top of the virgin snowpack at the top of The Bowl
below The Lip and whaddya' know, we had a problem.
A bigger slab then released which was about 100
feet wide aimed for the Lunch Rocks and several
people below - OH MEGA SH*T !
We screamed out AVA-LAAAAANCHE and stayed behind
the rocks by the rescue cache yet in a position
where we could observe so that we could see what
"Sir Avalanche" (they command serious respect,
dude) would catch. The smooth graceful
exponential increase in speed of this slide was as
beautiful as it was frightening. The soft rumble
as it rushed by me roughly 10 meters away was an
exceptionally pretty sound. But it also meant
business as it seemingly had animate homicidal
feelings.
We were seiously worried about the people below
us, especially since they were from Quebec and
might not have understood what "avalanche" met.
After some initial hesitation, they fleed to
higher rocks, leaving gear behind. As I watched
it finish it's estimated 1,200 foot ride falling
600-700 vertical feet to the floor of the Bowl, I
tried very hard to spot anyone that might be
caught.
As it stopped, I heard a girl cough hard,
obviously choking a bit on the blast cloud of
spindrift snow. We all stepped down and screamed
out for everyone to account for their friends (how
the hell do you say that in French?).
Fortunately, nobody was caught and our nice
friends from the North thanked us for our concern.
Meanwhile, the skier that triggered it, somehow
rode it past Schiller's Rock (scene of last year's
all-nighter) and skied out of it to the skiers
right andinto the bowl. Fortunately, he did not
trigger another one there. Meanwhile, people from
below were screaming out "thanks a lot, a##hole"
to him. Later on, when fellow patroller Paul and
I were having a bull session with the Snow
Rangers, we lamented about how hard we had worked
to inform everyone of the existing dangers and
that The Lip was closed to all use. I am almost
positive that I recognized the skier that
triggered the slide and yes I did indeed inform
him.
You read this right - avalanches happen in New
England, they happen in May and they happen in
front of large groups of people which means that
there is no safety in numbers.
Just another weekend of drama on Mount Washington.
Carter Dome's noble sublime peak with the lightly
sugared conifers provided me with great eye candy
on the early evening hike down to the bottom of
Pinkham Notch. Gawd I love this scene!
Get psyc