Post by kaima on Apr 21, 2013 22:38:06 GMT -7
In the same way a mild earthquake on the east coast gets a lot of east coast media attention, an avalanche with the scale of death of the recent Colorado avalanche gets attention out west.
Here is the story to date. Additional commentary on good luck will follow in the next posting.
* * * * * *
Colorado avalanche victims were part of snowboard "bash" turned tragic
By Jason Blevins
The Denver Post
LOVELAND PASS — The five men killed Saturday in Colorado's deadliest avalanche in 50 years were participants in a backcountry snowboarder event called the Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Bash.
Four of the five were expert snowboarders and one was an expert skier.
They were representatives and founders of snowsport companies, guides, avalanche experts and veteran backcountry travelers, gathering in the normally safer spring season to celebrate backcountry snowboarding, raise money for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and test the newest gear.
The five killed in the avalanche were:
* Chris Peters, 32, from Lakewood.
* Joe Timlin, a 32-year-old sales representative with Jones Snowboards from Gypsum and an organizer of the backcountry gathering.
* Ryan Novack, 33, of Boulder.
* Ian Lamphere, a 36-year-old skier from Crested Butte with an infant and fiancé. Lamphere founded the company Gecko Skins, which makes innovative climbing skins.
* Rick Gaukel, a 33-year-old American Mountain Guides Association-certified climbing guide with extensive avalanche education from Estes Park.
The sole survivor of the avalanche, Jerome Boulay, a sales representative with Silverton's Venture Snowboards, was dug free by rescuer Mike Bennett, a Dillon resident.
Measuring snow depth and depth of the face of the crown wall, the starting point of an avalanche.
Bennett spent the day riding on the south-facing Dry Gulch area across from the pass. He said organizers were "super apprehensive about safety."
"Everything was about safety," Bennett said. "Our whole goal was about being safe. The goal for us was just getting together to talk about safety and try some new gear."
Bennett was in the Loveland Valley parking lot, hanging with fellow backcountry snowboarders when Colorado Department of Transportation officials informed the group of a big avalanche in the Sheep Creek drainage just northeast of the Loveland Pass summit.
Bennett and a friend rushed up the pass and
Photos: Avalanche kills 5
[Nuggets practice Thursday]
Photos: Avalanche Kills 5 Snowboarders On Loveland Pass
prepared their gear for a search.
The avalanche was only a couple hundreds yards from a turn-out on Highway 6.
Bennett said his buddy was already digging frantically, uncovering what would be a body when he arrived around 2 p.m. at the middle section of the massive avalanche that released several hundred feet up the slope.
Bennett said he suspected his friends were buried in the debris and began searching with his avalanche beacon and picked up a signal.
He came across a snowboarder, with only one arm and his head above the icy chunks.
"I didn't hear him yelling. I came around a corner and saw him and heard him at the same time," Bennett said.
Bennett started digging and partially freed the sole survivor, who was later identified as Boulay.
"I said 'Well you're breathing and I think you're OK right now so I'm going to start digging for these other two guys,'" Bennett said.
Boulay said he had been buried for an hour. "Still I was hoping," Bennett said. "Some of them had an Avalung. Another had a Float pack. We were hoping someone was still alive."
After arduous digging through concrete-like snow, Bennett found his two friends tangled in timber about two feet below the surface.
"They were wrapped around each other, below a patch of trees," Bennett said. "The two guys were right there next to (Boulay). He could almost touch them."
Bennett stayed and assisted rescuers from Alpine Search and Rescue and
A ten-foot thick slab of snow broke free and buried six backcountry snowboarders in an avalanche in Sheep Creek Bowl below Loveland Pass on Saturday. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)
the Summit County Rescue Group. The last body was pulled from the snow at 5:30 p.m. That man was buried 15 feet deep, Bennett said.
On Friday night as part of the bash, there had been a party and raffle with more than 50 bash attendees at the Dillon Dam Brewery.
The event was not affiliated with Loveland ski area, although the group was using the parking lot of the closed Loveland Valley area.
The Friday event raised $1,700 for the avalanche center.
Summit County avalanche forecaster Scott Toepfer spoke at the party.
Toepfer shared the recent avalanche forecast for the Summit County and Vail area, warning of "deep persistent slabs and fresh wind slabs" on the north, east and southeast aspects near and above treeline.
Toepfer said that a snowboarder had been killed the on Thursday on a north-northeast-facing slope near Vail Pass in an avalanche that triggered near treeline.
A few days earlier, as heavy snow fell and high winds loaded slopes, avalanches in the Straight Creek drainage on the west side of the Eisenhower Tunnel had ripped to the ground on the same weak layer of rotten snow near the ground.
"One thing that we always try to find our patterns," Toepfer said as he geared up early Sunday to go investigate the massive slide. "Well we are seeing one lately: near treeline, between 11,800 (feet) and 12,200 (feet) on that north-northeast aspect."
After arduous digging through concrete-like snow, Bennett found his two friends tangled in timber about two feet below the surface.
All five men killed in the avalanche were wearing their equipment and all were carrying essential avalanche rescue gear.
Four were wearing splitboards - snowboards that split into wide skis that are used with climbing skins to ascend slopes - and one, Lamphere, was wearing skis with his skins also attached.
Avalanche investigators Saturday and Sunday said the group appeared to be well prepared and aware of avalanche danger.
"I think they were trying to do a lot of things right. These weren't guys who were reckless and didn't care. They all had gear and I think they cared about making good decisions," said Tim Brown, a Summit County avalanche forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center after investigating the avalanche site late Saturday.
"That is an important message right now. You can do a lot of things right but still be caught in a dangerous situation," Brown said.
Investigators said the avalanche was about 8-feet to 10-feet deep and stretched 1,100 feet. Debris - some chunks were the size of a small car - clogged a narrow chasm below the basin.
Bennett said he often skins and rides the road-accessible gully at the bottom of one of the open bowl that funnels into the Sheep Creek drainage.
"Yeah I've ridden this gully but I've never gone up there in the bowl," Bennett said." Too high of consequences. But those guys were not going up there. They were crossing at the bottom. They were spaced out a bit. It seemed like they were trying to space out. I'm telling you the idea here was just about trying to get out, ride our snowboards and be safe. We had the very best intentions."
Read more: Colorado avalanche victims were part of snowboard "bash" turned tragic - The Denver Post www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23074729/colorado-avalanche-victims-bash-tragic#ixzz2RASViCGn
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Follow us: @denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook
Here is the story to date. Additional commentary on good luck will follow in the next posting.
* * * * * *
Colorado avalanche victims were part of snowboard "bash" turned tragic
By Jason Blevins
The Denver Post
LOVELAND PASS — The five men killed Saturday in Colorado's deadliest avalanche in 50 years were participants in a backcountry snowboarder event called the Rocky Mountain High Backcountry Bash.
Four of the five were expert snowboarders and one was an expert skier.
They were representatives and founders of snowsport companies, guides, avalanche experts and veteran backcountry travelers, gathering in the normally safer spring season to celebrate backcountry snowboarding, raise money for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center and test the newest gear.
The five killed in the avalanche were:
* Chris Peters, 32, from Lakewood.
* Joe Timlin, a 32-year-old sales representative with Jones Snowboards from Gypsum and an organizer of the backcountry gathering.
* Ryan Novack, 33, of Boulder.
* Ian Lamphere, a 36-year-old skier from Crested Butte with an infant and fiancé. Lamphere founded the company Gecko Skins, which makes innovative climbing skins.
* Rick Gaukel, a 33-year-old American Mountain Guides Association-certified climbing guide with extensive avalanche education from Estes Park.
The sole survivor of the avalanche, Jerome Boulay, a sales representative with Silverton's Venture Snowboards, was dug free by rescuer Mike Bennett, a Dillon resident.
Measuring snow depth and depth of the face of the crown wall, the starting point of an avalanche.
Bennett spent the day riding on the south-facing Dry Gulch area across from the pass. He said organizers were "super apprehensive about safety."
"Everything was about safety," Bennett said. "Our whole goal was about being safe. The goal for us was just getting together to talk about safety and try some new gear."
Bennett was in the Loveland Valley parking lot, hanging with fellow backcountry snowboarders when Colorado Department of Transportation officials informed the group of a big avalanche in the Sheep Creek drainage just northeast of the Loveland Pass summit.
Bennett and a friend rushed up the pass and
Photos: Avalanche kills 5
[Nuggets practice Thursday]
Photos: Avalanche Kills 5 Snowboarders On Loveland Pass
prepared their gear for a search.
The avalanche was only a couple hundreds yards from a turn-out on Highway 6.
Bennett said his buddy was already digging frantically, uncovering what would be a body when he arrived around 2 p.m. at the middle section of the massive avalanche that released several hundred feet up the slope.
Bennett said he suspected his friends were buried in the debris and began searching with his avalanche beacon and picked up a signal.
He came across a snowboarder, with only one arm and his head above the icy chunks.
"I didn't hear him yelling. I came around a corner and saw him and heard him at the same time," Bennett said.
Bennett started digging and partially freed the sole survivor, who was later identified as Boulay.
"I said 'Well you're breathing and I think you're OK right now so I'm going to start digging for these other two guys,'" Bennett said.
Boulay said he had been buried for an hour. "Still I was hoping," Bennett said. "Some of them had an Avalung. Another had a Float pack. We were hoping someone was still alive."
After arduous digging through concrete-like snow, Bennett found his two friends tangled in timber about two feet below the surface.
"They were wrapped around each other, below a patch of trees," Bennett said. "The two guys were right there next to (Boulay). He could almost touch them."
Bennett stayed and assisted rescuers from Alpine Search and Rescue and
A ten-foot thick slab of snow broke free and buried six backcountry snowboarders in an avalanche in Sheep Creek Bowl below Loveland Pass on Saturday. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)
the Summit County Rescue Group. The last body was pulled from the snow at 5:30 p.m. That man was buried 15 feet deep, Bennett said.
On Friday night as part of the bash, there had been a party and raffle with more than 50 bash attendees at the Dillon Dam Brewery.
The event was not affiliated with Loveland ski area, although the group was using the parking lot of the closed Loveland Valley area.
The Friday event raised $1,700 for the avalanche center.
Summit County avalanche forecaster Scott Toepfer spoke at the party.
Toepfer shared the recent avalanche forecast for the Summit County and Vail area, warning of "deep persistent slabs and fresh wind slabs" on the north, east and southeast aspects near and above treeline.
Toepfer said that a snowboarder had been killed the on Thursday on a north-northeast-facing slope near Vail Pass in an avalanche that triggered near treeline.
A few days earlier, as heavy snow fell and high winds loaded slopes, avalanches in the Straight Creek drainage on the west side of the Eisenhower Tunnel had ripped to the ground on the same weak layer of rotten snow near the ground.
"One thing that we always try to find our patterns," Toepfer said as he geared up early Sunday to go investigate the massive slide. "Well we are seeing one lately: near treeline, between 11,800 (feet) and 12,200 (feet) on that north-northeast aspect."
After arduous digging through concrete-like snow, Bennett found his two friends tangled in timber about two feet below the surface.
All five men killed in the avalanche were wearing their equipment and all were carrying essential avalanche rescue gear.
Four were wearing splitboards - snowboards that split into wide skis that are used with climbing skins to ascend slopes - and one, Lamphere, was wearing skis with his skins also attached.
Avalanche investigators Saturday and Sunday said the group appeared to be well prepared and aware of avalanche danger.
"I think they were trying to do a lot of things right. These weren't guys who were reckless and didn't care. They all had gear and I think they cared about making good decisions," said Tim Brown, a Summit County avalanche forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center after investigating the avalanche site late Saturday.
"That is an important message right now. You can do a lot of things right but still be caught in a dangerous situation," Brown said.
Investigators said the avalanche was about 8-feet to 10-feet deep and stretched 1,100 feet. Debris - some chunks were the size of a small car - clogged a narrow chasm below the basin.
Bennett said he often skins and rides the road-accessible gully at the bottom of one of the open bowl that funnels into the Sheep Creek drainage.
"Yeah I've ridden this gully but I've never gone up there in the bowl," Bennett said." Too high of consequences. But those guys were not going up there. They were crossing at the bottom. They were spaced out a bit. It seemed like they were trying to space out. I'm telling you the idea here was just about trying to get out, ride our snowboards and be safe. We had the very best intentions."
Read more: Colorado avalanche victims were part of snowboard "bash" turned tragic - The Denver Post www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23074729/colorado-avalanche-victims-bash-tragic#ixzz2RASViCGn
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
Follow us: @denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook
