Huntington Death

[172Recon]

Another sad day. The rangers should be updating the accident report on the site sometime today or tomorrow. I'm not sure about the specifics other than it was an avalanche, but for now, here's the article:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NH_AVALANCHE_DEATH_NHOL-?SITE=NHCON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[tig]

Quoted verbatim

....
A climber was killed in an avalanche on Friday morning while soloing Odell's Gully on Mt. Washington. Apparently he went into the ravine in a period of High to Extreme avalanche danger. He was reported as overdue by a friend at 8 PM Friday night and was found this morning (Saturday) by a team from the MW Valley Mountain Rescue Service.
....

(http://www.neclimbs.com/smf_bbs/index.php?topic=3753.0)

Here's a link to the avy advisory for the day:
http://www.tuckerman.org/avalanche/archives/2008-01-18.html

[Ispoiler]

"We send our deepest condolences and thoughts to the family and friends of a fellow mountaineer who was killed in an avalanche in Huntington Ravine on Friday. The objective dangers in the winter mountains are many, which are contrasted by their extraordinary beauty, and the rejuvenation and peacefulness they can bring us. These factors together create the challenges that give us the intense fulfillment as human beings and keep us coming back time and time again. We must be ever on the lookout for all the hazards we face while pursuing our mountain passions. The mountains will be here another day. We will post an accident summary on tuckerman.org later today or tomorrow."

No real info yet other than Al Hospers recap:

A climber was killed in an avalanche on Friday morning while soloing Odell's Gully on Mt. Washington. Apparently he went into the ravine in a period of High to Extreme avalanche danger. He was reported as overdue by a friend at 8 PM Friday night and was found this morning (Saturday) by a team from the MW Valley Mountain Rescue Service.

[M@]

(Merged two threads)

M@

[boardman]

Sad news. Made all the more tragic by its self-evident avoidability.

[tig]

At http://www.tuckerman.org/accident/20072008.htm

[cms829]

We started our hike up to hermit lake at 11:15 friday night and arrived around 1:30. Sat morning we woke at 8:30 and I spoke to Chris in the caretakers hut for a while discussing route conditions. At 10:00 we headed down to the Lions Head trailhead. I had NO knowledge of this incident until now. Thats crazy. Eveyrone was aware of the high avy danger this weekend the rangers were stressing it

[Ispoiler]

Its a sad yet as boardman pointed out, avoidable and pointless death. I am really concerned for a large slide to take a few people out, I see more people making bad choices than I do wise ones. The Hilimans avi last year left a bad taste in my mouth as to the current state of mountain sense the average tucks visitor has.

[cbcbd]

I spoke to the Hermit Lake caretaker Sunday and found out about this accident. This guy had climbed in the ravines before and had plenty of winter experience in the Whites... also had completed his NH 48.

He (caretaker) suspected that the climber left Friday morning before the Avy report was posted in the pack room at Pinkham (easy to do with early starts since they are usually posted ~8-9am) and probably also missed the Harvard cabin board (if he even did take that trail). The ratings for Thursday were at Low, which is the last thing he saw... of course new snow and wind loading overnight raised it all to High... it's easy to mentally push on with what you had planned on doing.

Very sad that this had to happen.

[RR]

It seems cbcbd's take on this plays to Roux's known strengths for planning and considerable experience. Missing the snow transport information and consequent change in rating seems like the crux point of all the factors.

There is an article in the Jan 21 Boston Globe, City and Region section.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/21/experienced_climber_dies_on_mount_washington/

[jshefftz]

[...]Roux's known strengths for planning[...]
Solo, no rescue gear (did he not even own any, or just leave it behind since he was solo?), wx fx available very early that morning pointed to obvious avy danger (i.e., new snow + significant wind), avy fx that was posted at 8:22am and available at treeline was High, chose the first gully to get windloaded -- if that is how someone with "known strengths for planning" proceeds, then what does one do if weak in that area?

[Ispoiler]

While he made have had "known strengths for planning", his experence seems to be wildly over estimated. I know plenty of people who have hiked sets of peaks, but can't imagine how that would translate to avi sense without any additional training.

[jshefftz]

He was definitely a climber, not just a hiker:
http://www.neclimbs.com/smf_bbs/index.php?topic=3753.0
But profound avy ignorance and ill-preparedness seems to be common place among NE climbers. Remember the Nov 2002 Tux deaths? Of the 11 climbers in Tux at the time, not a single one had any avy rescue gear (beacon, probe, or shovel). One of the victims was the co-chair of the AMC Boston Chapter Mountaineering Committee. His partner, the other co-chair, was quoted in the AMC "Outdoors" magazine as saying that he'd never turned around b/c of a Moderate rating. (Or apparently ever bothered bringing avy rescue gear under Moderate conditions?) The Times Argus interviewed one of the members of another party (which triggered the slide), as well as other climbers, who all basically said, "beacons -- I don't know anyone who owns one out here."
And scroll down here to the Dec 20 incident:
http://www.tuckerman.org/accident/20072008.htm

So technical climbing expertise? He certainly had that. But avy savvy? Not even having avy rescue gear basically rules that out.
And unfortunately, the contrast between those two areas of expertise is all too frequent.

[cbcbd]

So technical climbing expertise? He certainly had that. But avy savvy? Not even having avy rescue gear basically rules that out.
And unfortunately, the contrast between those two areas of expertise is all too frequent.
I mentioned some of his climbing experience just to dispell all assumptions made on the guy... just like the picture I had in my mind when Chris at HoJos told me he was from Tennesse - couldn't help but picture a Southern good'ol boy heading up in Carharts and a gun for self-belay.

But I completely agree - there are too few climbers who take their time to be avy savy. Truth is, it's just fun to ski 35-45 degree slopes with powder... skiers have to care a lot more if they want to get on those slopes. Climbing in those conditions not so much...
I'm not saying this is an excuse, but with our limited avy terrain in the East we have climbers (like me) who will hit the ravines maybe once or twice a season and the rest of the time spent it on the other excellent ice to be found everywhere else with almost no avy danger. Unfortunately for climbers it's hard to pony up for the beacon, probe, shovel and AIARE class if you hit the ravine once in a while - and most times you can just use the report to make your decision.

I think this was a case of an avy-untrained climber who left Pinkham before the report was out and probably hiked in to Huntington on the Huntington trail, missing the Harvard cabin board. Not knowing about avy dangers, the "small" amount of snow probably seemed trivial to him. And it wasn't deep enough to bury him, but even small slabs can push you off your stance, and that's enough.

It sucks that he didn't live to learn a lesson.

[M@]

I was just wondering if the victim, Peter Roux, was ever on our forum? It's possible that he could be a registered user, and we'd never find out.

Reminds me that we need to push the "Talk to the Rangers" advice whenever it's appropriate. Come spring they'll be a lot of people coming around looking for advice. Let's make sure it's safe advise we give them.

M@

[Ispoiler]

The T4T sage RR once said to me "the best way to gain experience is to live through bad choices," unfortunately he did not. I think its best that we all take something positive from this and in a non preachy manor point out to fellow climbers who might be unaware of the risk.

I remember a few years back seeing avi debris that cut loose off of goofers on cathedral and watching the slab on the 1st pitch of threasher go, craigs are not always free of avi risk.

[PWDR8S]

Bummer about all this.... I would think climbers would certainly be up on avalanche knowledge considering you may be climbing on bare rock now...it's what's above you that may let loose and take you for a ride you from which might never come back.

May he find his peace. :(

[tig]

The T4T sage RR once said to me "the best way to gain experience is to live through bad choices," unfortunately he did not. I think its best that we all take something positive from this and in a non preachy manor point out to fellow climbers who might be unaware of the risk.

I remember a few years back seeing avi debris that cut loose off of goofers on cathedral and watching the slab on the 1st pitch of threasher go, craigs are not always free of avi risk.

And Odells especially has slopes above which could rain on it..see this:
(in april, with bare rock above exposed)
http://www.astro.upenn.edu/~rahul/ClimbingTrips/MtWashington/MtWashington-Images/0.jpg

[boardman]

couldn't help but picture a Southern good'ol boy heading up in Carharts and a gun for self-belay.



Ouch, that's pretty stereotypical! There are some fine alpinists in the South, many of whom have climbed all over the world. They climb some pretty sketchy ice in those parts, too.

But then again, I'm not sure that Avy courses are a regular offering down there.

I guess we can hope the dude's death will not have been in vain, if at least a few people learn from his mistake. May he rest in peace. I think the Ranger's piece in their avy report the other day was well said. Let's not forget that the guy was a kindred soul - a guy who loved the mountains, like many of us here do.

[cbcbd]

I remember a few years back seeing avi debris that cut loose off of goofers on cathedral and watching the slab on the 1st pitch of threasher go, craigs are not always free of avi risk.

IMO falling ice during a thaw is a lot easier to foresee and avoid than a snow slab avalanche - you don't need a class to tell you that there will be ice and rock fall if you're climbing under the mid-day sun on a 60 degree April day.

Ouch, that's pretty stereotypical! There are some fine alpinists in the South, many of whom have climbed all over the world. They climb some pretty sketchy ice in those parts, too.
My visual is just an over-exaggeration. We all know guns make excellent self-belays when placed barrel-first into the snow... but seriously...

But like you mention, he probably has less avy resources locally. And looking at what happened it looks like it was a case of bad timing (leaving before the avy report was posted), lack of real avy training, and a Heuristic trap - he does live far away (must get on it), he had climbed Odell's before (familiarity), and his plans that day were to climb Odell's (no 2nd choice to pick from).

Last year I triggered a small slab high up on Central in January. I wanted an early start and headed up before the report was posted, changing from Low to Moderate for that day... I was lucky and learned from it. I could've been this guy...

[RR]

Solo, no rescue gear (did he not even own any, or just leave it behind since he was solo?), wx fx available very early that morning pointed to obvious avy danger (i.e., new snow + significant wind), avy fx that was posted at 8:22am and available at treeline was High, chose the first gully to get windloaded -- if that is how someone with "known strengths for planning" proceeds, then what does one do if weak in that area?we both know people who knew him and have found out about his backgrond. Muggs fell into a crevasse...more experience one could not point to..

Bad stuff happens to anybody.

Granted Ro compressed his margins by soloing....can anyone say Messner? Croft? etc. The posting time and his passage represents a poor choice for someone with tight margins. Your point about planning is nonetheless well stated. We here usually make note of the weather pattern and local effects, but we were not driving up from Dixie, seperated from our internet and the wealth of info thereon.

"Day of" planning seemed to have been given short shrift. His death on his alternate route indicates attention to such matters not being enough. It comes down to an inexplicable choice regarding the Harvard posting.

I agree with Nick, we can pass down what we learn and condole with Ro's friends and family. I am with Mother Jones on things like these, "Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living."