Skier killed by avalanche in Sierra Nevada, two survive

"Ted Waldron" wrote in message
...
"All three skiers were extremely experienced and carried avalanche
beacons with them," Kendall said.

Pearson skied about a half-hour to Mono Village and used a store
telephone to call for help. Sheriff's deputies and more than a dozen
members of the volunteer search and rescue team went to the remote area
with snowmobiles, snowshoes and first aid equipment, Kendall said.

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the Avalanche,
but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

"Bob Lee" wrote in message
...
AH wrote:

Ted Waldron wrote:

"All three skiers were extremely experienced and carried avalanche
beacons with them," Kendall said.

Pearson skied about a half-hour to Mono Village and used a store
telephone to call for help. Sheriff's deputies and more than a dozen
members of the volunteer search and rescue team went to the remote area
with snowmobiles, snowshoes and first aid equipment, Kendall said.

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the
Avalanche,
but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

I don't know for certain, but in that part of the country, chances are
better than even that there was no cell phone coverage. Last spring I
was skiing somewhat near there around Leavitt Peak, and there was no
cell phone coverage anywhere in the mountains. It's the east side of
the California Sierra - way remote.

Bob

Hmm.. fair call.. I have skiied around that area before and thought it was
pretty populous around there. However, I suppose there really isn't much
going east from there..

AH wrote:

"Ted Waldron" wrote in message
...

"All three skiers were extremely experienced and carried avalanche
beacons with them," Kendall said.

Pearson skied about a half-hour to Mono Village and used a store
telephone to call for help. Sheriff's deputies and more than a dozen
members of the volunteer search and rescue team went to the remote area
with snowmobiles, snowshoes and first aid equipment, Kendall said.


Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the Avalanche,
but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

I sure wouldn't go into the backcountry assuming that a mobile phone
would work. Hell, they don't work at my house, and we got paved roads
and anything. Sorry, a cell phone is not a rescue device.

"Better gear than good sense/a man cannot carry." Sounds like those
people had sufficient experience, and I'd guess sense as well, and just
got unlucky while doing something inherently risky.

AH wrote:

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the Avalanche,
but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

No cell coverage.
No coverage in lots of the Sierra. Don't have service at trailheads most
places, much less deeper in the backcountry.

Now a satellite phone may work, if you don't squish it, and the bearer
isn't the bury-ie.

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the Avalanche,
but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

There was a pay phone at the base of the avalanche debris, but none had
a quarter...

Actually, it sounds like Pearson did the right things, or 3 would not
be alive....
it's shame, but they knew the risks.....

"lal_truckee" wrote in message
om...
AH wrote:

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the
Avalanche, but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

No cell coverage.
No coverage in lots of the Sierra. Don't have service at trailheads most
places, much less deeper in the backcountry.

Now a satellite phone may work, if you don't squish it, and the bearer
isn't the bury-ie.

Fair enough. I'm surprised to hear that there would be no cell coverage in
that region. I would have suspected this out in the Rockies maybe, but not
around the Sierra's. I guess its more remote out there than I had thought..

AH wrote:

"lal_truckee" wrote in message
om...

AH wrote:

Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the
Avalanche, but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

No cell coverage.
No coverage in lots of the Sierra. Don't have service at trailheads most
places, much less deeper in the backcountry.

Now a satellite phone may work, if you don't squish it, and the bearer
isn't the bury-ie.


Fair enough. I'm surprised to hear that there would be no cell coverage in
that region. I would have suspected this out in the Rockies maybe, but not
around the Sierra's. I guess its more remote out there than I had thought..

A region doesn't have to be all that remote to lack cell phone coverage.
It just has to have geography that makes coverage difficult -- like
where I live; the hills aren't high but they're steep and frequent, and
the people live in the valleys -- and a sufficiently small population to
not make it worthwhile. Visitors don't count...when you sign on with
Verizon, or whoever, they ask you where you live or work, they don't ask
you where you go for your recreation, so I suspect the whole "passing
through" population doesn't factor in to cell infrastructure planning.

AH wrote:

Fair enough. I'm surprised to hear that there would be no cell coverage in
that region. I would have suspected this out in the Rockies maybe, but not
around the Sierra's. I guess its more remote out there than I had thought..

Cel coverage is far from universal. Where I ski, there is no cel
service and it's inbounds, lift served, groomed, with a lodge, hot tubs,
demo center, etc.

And the lack of cel service is a selling point, IMHO. No nimrods
yammering away on the lifts.

//Walt

AH wrote:
I would have suspected this out in the Rockies maybe, but not
around the Sierra's. I guess its more remote out there than I had thought.

Heh. Hard to believe, what with California pushing 35,000,000 population
and all, but the Sierra contains the longest stretch of contiguous US
without a road or vehicle track crossing (from south of Whitney all the
way north to Tioga Pass.)

We got remote, we got crowded, we got remote AND crowded.

But as Mary pointed out, cell coverage is nil due to lots of vert and
deep canyons - they'd have to spot a cell on EVERY peak to get decent
coverage.

Mary Malmros wrote:


AH wrote:

"Ted Waldron" wrote in message
...

"All three skiers were extremely experienced and carried avalanche
beacons with them," Kendall said.

Pearson skied about a half-hour to Mono Village and used a store
telephone to call for help. Sheriff's deputies and more than a dozen
members of the volunteer search and rescue team went to the remote area
with snowmobiles, snowshoes and first aid equipment, Kendall said.


Well, they might have been prepared to dig each other out of the
Avalanche, but why the hell didn't one of them have a mobile phone!

I sure wouldn't go into the backcountry assuming that a mobile phone
would work. Hell, they don't work at my house, and we got paved roads
and anything. Sorry, a cell phone is not a rescue device.

"Better gear than good sense/a man cannot carry." Sounds like those
people had sufficient experience, and I'd guess sense as well, and just
got unlucky while doing something inherently risky.


Still a mobile phone might work and it takes up very little space to
carry. And even if it didn't work at the avalanche site, it might have
worked close to town and saved precious minutes.

--
To reply by email remove "_nospam"