In-bounds avalanche death at Jackson

This is very unusual. IIRC in 2005 when the freak accident at Ski Las Vegas (kid blown off a chairlift) and the late season wet slide at A-Basin happened, weren't they described as "the first in-bounds avalanche deaths in 25 years" or something like that? Now 3 in 2 weeks.
 
Tony Crocker":tn5n92qf said:
This is very unusual. IIRC in 2005 when the freak accident at Ski Las Vegas (kid blown off a chairlift) and the late season wet slide at A-Basin happened, weren't they described as "the first in-bounds avalanche deaths in 25 years" or something like that? Now 3 in 2 weeks.
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The snowpack is that unusual. Per Evelyn Lees of the Utah Avalanche Center this morning,

We have one of the trickiest, crummiest, persistently dangerous snow packs that we have had in many years.
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While hitting the steep and powder frequently, most on this board know I've been on the Racer/Coach track most of my ski career. As I am now shifting more toward the powder side, I'm seriously considering an avi beacon for inbounds after all of this. This season so far is just nuts.
 
Seems like there is a lot of avalanches inbounds this season out there. I hope it doesn't keep going like this for a while.
 
I don't think Squaw had much snow before the storms the last couple weeks so they may not have the weak layer that is in the Rockies.
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Perhaps that's why this year is more dangerous than last year. The November 2007 drought was so extreme that the December dumps fell on practically nothing at most places. While this year there was some early November snow, then the 3-4 dry weeks before the dumps began.

But in general the West Coast snowpack, while just as dangerous during storms, is more likely to stabilize over a short period of time thereafter. That's why some of the dedicated backcountry types prefer to live out here.
 
Interesting and enlightening commentary from Bruce Tremper in this morning's Utah Avalanche Center report:

Bruce Tremper":2ld7rwgj said:
We are entering that particularly dangerous time when the snowpack slowly stabilizes, our danger ratings continue to creep down and people's boldness continues to creep up. We are entering the dreaded, most dangerous, of all danger ratings—Considerable--where most avalanche accidents occur. The word High gets people's attention but Considerable is just a horrible word that we are, unfortunately, stuck with from an international committee. I prefer the word “serious” which gets the message across better. I'm calling the danger today Considerable with “pockets” of High, which in this case, means “areas” of High, where the entire slopes can break out 1000 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Most of these will be unsurvivable. Thankfully, many of the usual suspects have already avalanched but there still are many slopes hanging in the balance just waiting for a trigger. You can easily trigger these from the bottom or adjacent slopes or ridges. I'm still staying off any slope steeper than 30 degrees that faces northwest, north, northeast and east. If you want to go steep, go to a resort or go to one of the mid to lower elevation south facing slopes. The problem, of course, is our old enemy, the facet-rain crust combination buried about 4 feet deep, which is taking its sweet time to heal up. This is an especially tricky situation as evidenced by three inbounds fatalities this season in the U.S., each at the top resorts in the country for their state-of-the-art avalanche practices—Snowbird, Squaw Valley and two days ago at Jackson Hole. If it's fooling the best avalanche experts in the country, it can fool anyone, me included. Avoidance is still the best policy.
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Just reading TGR and looks like Headwall avalanched this morning before the mountain opened. Sounds like they found all patrol/restaurant workers. I grabbed this pic off the cam from JHMR's website. It's covered now. Scary stuff. Feeling okay for the first time that there's no new snow forecast for this week in Utah when I'm coming out.
 

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socal":2xea8xhy said:
Feeling okay for the first time that there's no new snow forecast for this week in Utah when I'm coming out.
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That's unfortunately no reason to become complacent. Anything that hasn't slid is still heavily weighted on the underlying facet layer, which has yet to stabilize. Witness the fact that Backside at Alta went huge just this morning (although that was triggered):

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... 926#p39926
 
Admin":3vfll64e said:
socal":3vfll64e said:
Feeling okay for the first time that there's no new snow forecast for this week in Utah when I'm coming out.
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That's unfortunately no reason to become complacent. Anything that hasn't slid is still heavily weighted on the underlying facet layer, which has yet to stabilize. Witness the fact that Backside at Alta went huge just this morning (although that was triggered):

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... 926#p39926
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Not complacent at all, just hoping the break in the storms allows things to become safer and get more terrain open for this week.
 
socal":1y6ynh5z said:
Not complacent at all, just hoping the break in the storms allows things to become safer and get more terrain open for this week.
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Understood. I apologize for misinterpreting your comment.
 
No problem. And as a, just in case, myself and the person I'm skiing with picked up beacons. Now gotta learn how to use it.
 
socal":wd1dwr01 said:
No problem. And as a, just in case, myself and the person I'm skiing with picked up beacons. Now gotta learn how to use it.
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And practice to get good at it. AFAIK Snowbird still maintains a "Beacon Basin" between the Cliff Lodge and the Heliport, so that you can practice locating multiple victims. Also, you can check in with Alta Ski Patrol atop Collins to find out what area of the mountain a beacon has been hidden in that day, then go find it.

I need to practice more myself.
 
Have to be careful what you wish for sometimes. How happy would you/me/other visitors be if you told them there'd be 5-8ft of new snow in their week at JHMR?
 
I'd hate to be spending $2,000 per day at Jackson Hole with my family over the Christmas Holidays and be confined to skiing those two chairlifts that service basically beginner terrain. Bummer !!!!
 
just go over to snowking for less crowds and more pow.
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Or more likely Targhee. Snow King is quiet, but it's definitely in a natural snow shadow. Even though it was deserted and had some new snow the morning Patrick and I were there, the lower mountain had that hardpack snowmaking feel underfoot in many spots.
 
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