Squaw Valley post-control release 2 men hurt

mikesathome

mikesathome

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The thick blanket of new snow was welcome news for ski resorts, but made for some dicey conditions in the backcountry and even at one ski resort.

Two skiers were injured after being caught in a snow slide on Squaw Valley USA’s KT-22 Saturday morning.

The men, who suffered leg injuries, were caught in what Savannah Cowley, Squaw spokeswoman, called a “post-control release,” not an avalanche, at about 11 a.m. Cowley said that prior to the slide that hit the two men, ski patrollers used dynamite to knock loose the potential avalanche site in the area of the Olympic Lady ski lift where the slide later occurred.


With all the snow that fell in this area over the past 5 days, one little post-control release is truly amazing. Hats off to the ski patrol at Squaw and all the lake Tahoe area. :D
 
ok, so what is the difference between a post-control release and an avalanche...isn't a post-control release still an avalanche?
 
Sounds like a PR twist to me.

At best, it sounds like maybe a slough of snow occurred in a small/limited area, not a true avalanche.
 
EMSC":1kpwtfuc said:
...it sounds like maybe a slough of snow occurred in a small/limited area, not a true avalanche.
Click to expand...
A slough (aka sluff) is defined as a small, loose snow avalanche. Quoting from avalanche.org:
Loose snow avalanches usually start from a point and fan outward as they descend, and because of this they are also called “point releases.” Very few people are killed by sluffs because they tend to be small and they tend to fracture beneath you as you cross a slope instead of above you as slab avalanches often do. The avalanche culture tends to minimize the danger of sluffs, sometimes calling them "harmless sluffs." But, of course, this is not always the case. Houses have been completely destroyed by "harmless sluffs," and if caught in one, it can easily take the victim over cliffs, into crevasses or bury them deeply in a terrain trap such as a gully.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt though, a "...post-control release..." is what a marketing spokesdrone calls an unexpected avalanche.
 
I obviously have never attended an avalanche class, and spend my time in-bounds.

I always thought that slough/sluff were defined completely separately/differently from 'real' avalanches but I stand corrected.

In this case, injuring two people, Best case was a slough, but probably more ...
 
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