Avalanche "prevention" --- during ski hours?

H.W. Stockman wrote:

: "Matt" wrote in message
: ...
: H.W. Stockman wrote:
:
: : Initial reports say his bar was down, and he actually tried to brace
: himself
: : on the bar. The force of the avalanche was supposedly quite hard, and
: the
: : speculation is that he was immediately knocked unconscious, if not
: : immediately dealt a fatal blow (there was a lot of debri in the flow --
: : pieces of trees, rocks, etc.) The news just reported that he was found
: : under 25 feet of hardened snow.
:
: what i don't follow is how an avy can get to you when you're up on a lift.
: did he fall off the lift due to the shock of the avy hitting the lift
: tower?
: everything reads as if the avy swept him off the lift- which would mean it
: would have also snagged the chair, etc, which obviously didn't happen,
: since
: others on the lift survived. this doesn't appear to be spelled out very
: clearly in any of these reports.

: I think he was in the first chair, which was about to come to the top of the
: lift, so the chair was closer to the ground at that point (than the chairs
: behind). The avalanche was suppposedly quite high.

makes more sense, but still surprising the lift didn't suffer more.

Kurt Knisely wrote:
At any rate, most folks INSIDE a ski area
don't wear beacons

Around here the patrol often buries a beacon or two on the mountain,
providing general location, for passerby's to practice locating; so
beacons are sometimes worn inbounds - and after looking at the
conditions today I wore mine inbounds and didn't even think about
backcountry.

and don't expect avalanches to come down on them

Happens. Not often, but enough that resort skiers should be aware of the
possibilities. I think selling skiing as a dabble "sport" and issuing
wide "powder cheat" skis to every dunderhead is asking for trouble. In
the good old days (when I was young(er)) we were taught that the
mountains in winter would kill you if you weren't careful. These days
resorts try actively to prevent any such awareness.

"Matt" wrote in message
...
H.W. Stockman wrote:

[...]
: I think he was in the first chair, which was about to come to the top of
the
: lift, so the chair was closer to the ground at that point (than the
chairs
: behind). The avalanche was suppposedly quite high.

makes more sense, but still surprising the lift didn't suffer more.

http://www.klastv.com/Global/story.a...5&nav=168XV2S1

To add to the confusion... this source says he was buried in 6 to 10 feet of
snow (others say 25 feet, which I can't believe, since there was no backhoe
up there to dig him out)... but the chair was 20 feet off the ground when he
was hit. I heard an interview with two fellows who were several chairs
back, and they said there was a birm right before the lift, and when the
snow hit the birm, it was launched up in the air.

The resort (and a map of the runs):
http://www.skilasvegas.com/
http://www.skilasvegas.com/slopes.html

Kurt Knisely wrote:

Pretty darn rare in-bounds though, you gotta admit...to be plucked from a lift?
I guess when you're number is up, it's up and there's nothing you can do about
it.

Agreed - rare. But at my local, three skiers were lost in 1977 (I
believe that was the year) on controlled and open slopes. Avi buried the
top station of Kangaroo lift a few seasons ago, trapping the operator
(unhurt.) Skier buried on controlled and open back side near F Tree
maybe a decade ago; dogs found him unhurt. These are just the inbounds
events on controlled and open terrain that I remember off the top. Not
associated with control shots or closed areas or otherwise - just
regular skiing at a resort. Shi^H^Hnow happens.

Number up? 13 is too young for a number to be up. Dam shame.

Around here the patrol often buries a beacon or two on the mountain,
providing general location, for passerby's to practice locating; so
beacons are sometimes worn inbounds -

I just hope they bury them in areas that could NEVER slide. It would be a
damn shame to spend 10 minutes tracking down and digging out a practice
beacon, when the real deal is waiting for you 50 yards away. Just like the
guy who joins a probe line, and leaves his beacon on transmit. Not so good.

-simon-

Simon Isbister wrote:
Around here the patrol often buries a beacon or two on the mountain,
providing general location, for passerby's to practice locating; so
beacons are sometimes worn inbounds -


I just hope they bury them in areas that could NEVER slide.


Yeah, it's tame terrain - just for an excercise.