Jackson Hole patroller buried by avalanche

Was at Targhee today for the 17"/ make up for missing the storm last week at Alta. The people showed and things were tracked out by 10:00. Was losing interest then the sun came out and it was beautiful.

Drove over to Jackson tonight and heard about the accident. Everybody here seems to know the victim. JHMR was only limited operation today.
 
Ugh. Hate to read stories like this. Anyone have any news as to his current condition? Makes you realize working and skiing in the mountains carries a certain amount of risk.
 
Do patrollers doing control work wear tranceivers? I guess if he was under 6 feet of snow it could have taken 10 minutes to get him out. No mention of trauma, so his condition is purely due to the burial?
 
Tony Crocker":3lpzpxdl said:
Do patrollers doing control work wear tranceivers?
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In Utah, yes - I can't imagine that not being the case at Jackson or anywhere else.

Tony Crocker":3lpzpxdl said:
I guess if he was under 6 feet of snow it could have taken 10 minutes to get him out. No mention of trauma, so his condition is purely due to the burial?
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Well, he was swept over a cliff of unspecified height.
 
Obviously they're wearing beacons. I'd think 10 minutes to dig someone out of 6 ft of snow is pretty quick. Anyone remember how long it took to dig up the person who was killed skiing Toilet bowl ( I think) at jackson last year? If I recall that was 6ft or so of snow and he was wearing a beacon.
Below is from http://www.facebook.com/jacksonhole/posts/270612878901


Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Thank you for your comment Randall. Yes he was found and yes all of our patrollers wear beacons when doing avalanche hazard reduction.
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Eerily reminiscent in some ways of the Squaw patroller who died doing avi control last season. And second year in a row with a significant avi incident at JH. Maybe we the ravenous hordes of powder hogs are pushing patrol to try to open everything too quickly? I don't have enough detailed avi knowledge to guess, but I do know that the last couple of years have not been good for ski areas and avi work/issues.
 
EMSC":2fax9a50 said:
And second year in a row with a significant avi incident at JH. Maybe we the ravenous hordes of powder hogs are pushing patrol to try to open everything too quickly? I don't have enough detailed avi knowledge to guess, but I do know that the last couple of years have not been good for ski areas and avi work/issues.
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Both last year and this year we have a particularly tricky, squirrley, difficult to assess, dangerous, unpredictable snow-pack in the west.
 
Skied by the accident site of few times today. It was at the Southwest corner of Cheyenne Bowl/ ran from Rendezvous Trail all the way to the bottom of the bowl/ maybe a 3' fracture.

There was a posting yesterday on the JHMR web page about the accident/ fairly detailed. Visitors to Jackson Hole today enjoyed much better conditions than they would have had half the mountain not been closed yesterday; I hope that most were aware of why this was.
 
Closed terrain now includes Corbett's, Expert Chutes, Alta Chutes, Tower 3 Chute, Hobacks, Upper Casper, Crags.

The Tram/ Thunder/ Sublette lifts were closed on Wednesday.

Was standing at Sublette Ridge when they dropped the rope about 1:30. Nice powder/ didn't hit anything/ sure were a lot of shrubs sticking through, though.

Jackson needs a base of about 4 more feet on the ground to be on the recommended list.

Hiring an Exum guide and skiing low angle trees in the national park today.

The patroller was pulseless when found and first responders at scene were not able to restore the pulse/ had a six minute ride to the base (can't do chest compressions during sled trip) where they were able to restore a pulse. One can have some minimal hope since he was cold, but still this sounds grim.
 
Skrad":fx48hwyi said:
The patroller was pulseless when found and first responders at scene were not able to restore the pulse/ had a six minute ride to the base (can't do chest compressions during sled trip) where they were able to restore a pulse. One can have some minimal hope since he was cold, but still this sounds grim.
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In some circumstances you actually can do chest compressions on the sled- when I patrolled at Snow Summit we had a contraption we called the "life sled," it's wider than the usual toboggan and has a crossbar that can be raised over the injured person, a patroller can kneel in the sled over the bar (there's a safety strap that then goes over the patroller) and do CPR en route.

This requires a few elements of luck to come together; 1) the place has such a sled, 2) it's stationed at a patrol bump within easy access to the area it needs to be, 3) the event occurs in an area you can get the sled to. I doubt all that could have come together here, but CPR on a moving sled is something that's possible.

Tragic event.
 
Very sad to read on the official site that the patroller passed away.

Posted on - 2010-01-09

(Jackson Hole, Wyoming, January 9, 2010) Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is extremely saddened to confirm the news that veteran ski patroller Mark “Big Wally” Wolling has passed away.

Big Wally had been an employee of JHMR since 1978 and an invaluable member of the Ski Patrol since 1989. As one of the longer tenured patrollers, his experience, camaraderie, team spirit and sheer size were legendary in Jackson Hole and he will be deeply missed for a very long time.

“Widely loved by colleagues at JHMR and across the ski industry, his passing leaves us with an enormous sense of loss,” commented Jerry Blann, President JHMR. “We send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends at this tragic time.”

Mark Wolling was caught and buried in an avalanche at JHMR while he carried out avalanche hazard reduction work prior to the mountain opening on Wednesday, the 6th January 2010.
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