pulverschwein
01-03-2008, 01:44 PM
Please keep your wits about you til everything stabilizes.
They've consistently had similar amounts in the tetons, with some pretty scary releases in the days following. Some injuries, but no fatalities to date.
http://www.jhguide.com/article.php?art_id=2592
Avalanche injures man
By Cara Froedge
January 3, 2008
Five rescue workers spent Tuesday night in the backcountry tending to a snowboarder injured after sliding about 1,300 vertical feet in an avalanche, the last accident in a day that brought several skier-triggered slides.
Doug Meyer, Teton County Search and Rescue director, said the snowboarder triggered the slide about 4 p.m. on Tuesday in Unskiabowl near Teton Pass. The snowboarder and three others were traversing north on the ridge of Mount Glory when he decided to check out Unskiabowl, Meyer said.
As he was peering into the bowl, the cornice he was standing on broke and pulled him over the edge.
That fall triggered a 75-foot-wide slide that swept the snowboarder off a 50-foot cliff. That started a larger avalanche about 6 to 8 feet deep and 300 feet wide, Meyer said.
The snowboarder then slid another 1,200 feet down to the bottom of the bowl, he said. A sheriff’s deputy’s report said the snowboarder was not buried but was injured and couldn’t move his legs.
Capt. Jim Whalen of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday the details of the accident were still sketchy and the deputy who wrote the report was not in the office.
According to the preliminary information, the accident wasn’t reported until 6 p.m. by a member of the party who had met the other three men only that day.
That fourth person, visiting from Minnesota, knew only the first names of the others involved: Toby, Matt and Jeremiah. He hiked out to report the accident while the other two stayed behind with the injured snowboarder, reportedly named Toby.
Because it was dark, the snowpack was unstable and subzero temperatures were possible, rescue workers decided to send a team to bring extra equipment and clothing and stay overnight.
Meyer said five Search and Rescue workers, including a doctor, started toward the three men around 8:45 p.m. and reached them about an hour later.
Once rescuers arrived, they found that the snowboarder had injured his pelvis and a companion was diabetic and had no insulin.
“We ended up having two patients,” Meyer said.
The two men were stabilized and flown from the bottom of the bowl to St. John’s Medical Center just after 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
On Tuesday there were at least three other skier-caused avalanches following a major winter storm.
One slide near Jensen Canyon, on a peak known as the Pyramid, was likely triggered by two skiers climbing a ridge near the slope.
After that slide, Search and Rescue conducted a helicopter search of the debris in case others might have been caught in the avalanche. Searchers employed an avalanche transceiver dangling beneath the airship to scan the slope for any transmissions from a beacon a buried skier might have been carrying.
Then, two skiers traversing a slope together south of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort triggered a 4-foot-deep fracture at 10,500 feet. They were carried by but survived the slide.
Three skiers climbing a southeast slope at approximately 10,300 feet in Grand Teton National Park also were caught but not injured by a slide visible from Jackson.
Hope the snow keeps coming here and there and that folks use their knowledge, training, experience and common sense. This may need some emphasis on the rockpile in the next 5-8 days or so, what with the buttloads of snow, a warm up, folks thinkin spring may have sprung, with unrealistic perceptions of stability. If you see some gapers doing stoopit shyte, maybe give em a bit o friendly advice . . .
They've consistently had similar amounts in the tetons, with some pretty scary releases in the days following. Some injuries, but no fatalities to date.
http://www.jhguide.com/article.php?art_id=2592
Avalanche injures man
By Cara Froedge
January 3, 2008
Five rescue workers spent Tuesday night in the backcountry tending to a snowboarder injured after sliding about 1,300 vertical feet in an avalanche, the last accident in a day that brought several skier-triggered slides.
Doug Meyer, Teton County Search and Rescue director, said the snowboarder triggered the slide about 4 p.m. on Tuesday in Unskiabowl near Teton Pass. The snowboarder and three others were traversing north on the ridge of Mount Glory when he decided to check out Unskiabowl, Meyer said.
As he was peering into the bowl, the cornice he was standing on broke and pulled him over the edge.
That fall triggered a 75-foot-wide slide that swept the snowboarder off a 50-foot cliff. That started a larger avalanche about 6 to 8 feet deep and 300 feet wide, Meyer said.
The snowboarder then slid another 1,200 feet down to the bottom of the bowl, he said. A sheriff’s deputy’s report said the snowboarder was not buried but was injured and couldn’t move his legs.
Capt. Jim Whalen of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday the details of the accident were still sketchy and the deputy who wrote the report was not in the office.
According to the preliminary information, the accident wasn’t reported until 6 p.m. by a member of the party who had met the other three men only that day.
That fourth person, visiting from Minnesota, knew only the first names of the others involved: Toby, Matt and Jeremiah. He hiked out to report the accident while the other two stayed behind with the injured snowboarder, reportedly named Toby.
Because it was dark, the snowpack was unstable and subzero temperatures were possible, rescue workers decided to send a team to bring extra equipment and clothing and stay overnight.
Meyer said five Search and Rescue workers, including a doctor, started toward the three men around 8:45 p.m. and reached them about an hour later.
Once rescuers arrived, they found that the snowboarder had injured his pelvis and a companion was diabetic and had no insulin.
“We ended up having two patients,” Meyer said.
The two men were stabilized and flown from the bottom of the bowl to St. John’s Medical Center just after 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
On Tuesday there were at least three other skier-caused avalanches following a major winter storm.
One slide near Jensen Canyon, on a peak known as the Pyramid, was likely triggered by two skiers climbing a ridge near the slope.
After that slide, Search and Rescue conducted a helicopter search of the debris in case others might have been caught in the avalanche. Searchers employed an avalanche transceiver dangling beneath the airship to scan the slope for any transmissions from a beacon a buried skier might have been carrying.
Then, two skiers traversing a slope together south of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort triggered a 4-foot-deep fracture at 10,500 feet. They were carried by but survived the slide.
Three skiers climbing a southeast slope at approximately 10,300 feet in Grand Teton National Park also were caught but not injured by a slide visible from Jackson.
Hope the snow keeps coming here and there and that folks use their knowledge, training, experience and common sense. This may need some emphasis on the rockpile in the next 5-8 days or so, what with the buttloads of snow, a warm up, folks thinkin spring may have sprung, with unrealistic perceptions of stability. If you see some gapers doing stoopit shyte, maybe give em a bit o friendly advice . . .