New Year's Eve Loveland Pass Avalanche

[CO_knuckle_dragger]

On New Year's Eve myself and 2 friends were skiing/riding at A-basin when we looked up to see a couple of snowshoers coming straight down into a bowl from about 1 peak north of Grizzly Peak. None of us are avalanche experts but we noted a couple of things:

-It was about 2 PM on a warm day
-Many of the other bowls/faces in the area had recent slide activity
-The Avvy forecast for that day was pretty bad (don't remember the details)
-They were coming down what looked to be about a 35 degree slope

As might be expected, there was an avalanche. We all looked down for a second (to move forward in the line) and then looked back to see that the snowshoers had disappeared and the entire slope had slid.

We would later learn that the party did not carry beacons, shovels, or probes. One might therefore infer they didn't have much in the way of Avvy training. It was a father and son party. The father was buried except for one hand, which he used to dig himself out. He then dug out his son after a 20 minute burial. He located his son only because he had managed to create an air pocket and was yelling for help. Both apparently escaped without injuries.

 

[Jonny D]

I'm going to use my psychic powers and guess that they were each given a bag of horseshoes for Christmas.

Now I'm the first to admit that I know very little about avalanche safety, but those two exhibited embarassingly bad judgement.

 

[Killclimbz]

Neither one of them knew anything about avalanche safety either. Hence the reason they were in such a bad spot.

The avy danger around here is bouncing around like a yo yo. One day it's low to moderate the next it's high. The only place to know about the general conditions is through the CAIC.

That slope is not always dangerous, but it was that day. An obvious terrain trap.

On a side note, I was up at Moffat tunnel on the second. Topping out at treeline I went over to check out an open face. My weight on top of the ridge triggered the slope below me and it slid. Things were touchy indeed.

 

[yak]

Here's a link to the accident report. (I've been paying a lot of attention to this area as I'll be doing some BC touring out there in February). These guys got lucky.