4 dead in Utah avalanche

[MarkusFin]

Naw dude you sound pretty knowledgeable.

the only thing i do when i ski deep pow in bc areas is the double cross cut test where you ski across a face, hike up 10 feet and ski another cross cut above the first to see if it calves off a section. Id like to get an air bag thing at some point bc they seem to be pretty amazing at saving ppl.

very sad but dying in an avalanche is one of the best ways to go if ur gonna go. Everybody thinks ur a badass.

Better at least than accidentally autoerotic asphyxiating yourself to death.

This is the dumbest thing I've read in my entire life

 

[eheath]

Naw dude you sound pretty knowledgeable.

the only thing i do when i ski deep pow in bc areas is the double cross cut test where you ski across a face, hike up 10 feet and ski another cross cut above the first to see if it calves off a section. Id like to get an air bag thing at some point bc they seem to be pretty amazing at saving ppl.

very sad but dying in an avalanche is one of the best ways to go if ur gonna go. Everybody thinks ur a badass.

Better at least than accidentally autoerotic asphyxiating yourself to death.

After reading this, you should never go into the BC, you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[.squirrely.]

Ski cut is essentially useless for PWL problems like this, they say most deep slabs break about the trigger so a ski cut would just get you caught in the unlikely chance you hit the shallow spot to trigger

2nd part of your post is dumb as fuck

2021 make lowangle tree skiin and turning away from lines the new badass

Meant to say break *above the trigger

 

[GayWolf420]

A GoFundMe has been set-up for the victims families, survivors, WBR, and UAC. Feel free to donate or at least share the link. Like the many of you in this thread, some close friends of really close friends perished on saturday and it's been hard to hear about.

Please don't quote my post and get on your soapbox about how you feel about this. Just hold your tongue. Donate or don't.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/wilson-glades-millcreek-ut-avalanche-survivors?utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer

 

[NateDude]

Yeah just cherry-pick my post and ignore the context, you stupid fuck.

How is anyone supposed to read your posts and not think you're a flaming asshole, this dude's frienda literally died and you're being a dick. You seriously need some therapy

 

[theabortionator]

Off to a bad start. Thats two big ones in a week?

Stay safe out there. Skipping a cool looking zone one day and getting to ride another day is a pretty good trafe iff. The call can be tough to make but be careful. Obviously regardless of precautions shit happens. Just be safe out there. Hoping there isn't much more news for slides this season. That's unlikely but still.

Fuck. RIP

 

[ColoradoDogfart]

absolutely heartbreaking to hear, this has been the deadliest week caused by avys in over a 100 years, makes you think if skiing in the bc is even worth it even if there a tiny possibility something might go wrong, cause at the end of the day were all normal people, and sliding on some snow doesn't define us. I still cant understand the slander people have been getting, however. If your willing tp put yourself out there to show you almost making a fatal mistake nobody should be slandering you, cause that just means the next dude isn't going to post their stuff in worry of that happening.

 

[a_pla5tic_bag]

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-50592060

More? That guy spent an awful long time filming before deciding to leave.

**This post was edited on Feb 8th 2021 at 10:05:28pm

**This post was edited on Feb 8th 2021 at 10:06:16pm

 

[casual]

Most 3 antenna beacons have a critical distance (as far as at what point electromagnetic interference becomes a real problem) of something in the range of 3 cm. Typically, devices outside of that range won’t play much of a role at all, particularly in SEND.

Most manufacturers though recommend keeping a phone at least 20 cm from a transceiver in SEND, and 50 cm in SEARCH, for a lot of reasons, but primarily because of the tendency for items to violently shift in an avalanche (I’m talking about the 20cm in send mode when stowed on your person). There is some limited evidence that when using a beacon in SEARCH, a phone closer than 50 cm can do some wonky things, though.

Transceivers and interference can be pretty unpredictable at times, and weird stuff definitely happens, so I’ll give you that. That said, personally as someone that has trained and experimented extensively with transceivers, RECCO and even purposely trying to create interference with electronic devices and metal, I’ve yet to encounter a cell phone actively making locating a transceiver impossible or even difficult—on or off. RECCO on the other hand is sensitive as hell when it comes to interference. I genuinely wonder if some of the cellphone stuff is liability related. Even talking to Manuel personally and the designer of the mammut fleet of transceivers makes me think having a powered on phone isn’t the fatal error I’ve seen it characterized as.

I wholeheartedly agree with your points about the backpack (this is totally egregious...that back pack has a very high likelihood of being ripped from your person in a slide....potentially creating a situation where a companion rescuer mistakenly dogs up your

god damn pack, as your packless body dies and your friend properly wearing a beacon does too....dumb as fuck!), the exposing of the whole group to the run out of an obvious frequent avalanche path in high danger conditions, the underestimating of the ability to remote trigger persistent slab avalanches in conditions that exist right now, etc.

These events are truly tragic, and I can see how picking them apart immediately can seem callous. However, I also think it’s incredibly important for people in this community to openly and honestly discuss others’ mistakes to reaffirm to themselves what to do/not do. The truth here is that in each of these incidents, major errors were made. That’s not to say that I/we couldn’t make the same ones tomorrow, or that these people were fundamentally careless or anything like that. Smart, diligent people make mistakes,

and snow covered mountains are a damn dynamic and scary environment.

Glad to hear your buddies are ok but please don't mention a remote trigger and act as if it was out of their control. You should be considering what would remote trigger onto you 100% of the time you are out in the back country.

Considering your friend was well educated, I’m curious what led them to that situation. Hanging out in a slide path during high danger conditions, having everyone in the same exposed zone at once, not doing a transceiver check at the trail head and then keeping it where it belongs, using his phone (that shot should be off), continuing to film as people are buried. If I saw goons like this where I was skiing I would have told them to go the fuck back to the city to be honest.

**This post was edited on Feb 8th 2021 at 11:06:01pm

 

[casual]

Ski cuts are essentially only worthwhile for storm slab and small touchy wind slab avalanche problems. One, because ski cutting is an art and takes a lot of experience and frankly failure to get right (meaning that you make the cut in such a way and place where you release the slab, but at your feet and below and not above you), so you only want to do them in places where to take a ride is either very unlikely, or likely not very consequential.

Two, because ski cuts don’t affect persistent weak layers in the snowpack deeper than roughly 100cm (at most) and much less in very hard/dense wind and persistent slabs where your skis don’t penetrate.

Also, you make ski cuts along convexities at the top/start zone of paths, but the problem with persistent slabs is that they’re often triggered mid path or even in the toe, or along the fringes where the snow is shallower and the weight of a skier can cause a collapse in the PWL where it propagates along that layer into deeper areas. That can also happen randomly anywhere where a buried rock or whatever makes the depth shallower.

Basically, making a ski cut in this instance wouldn’t have done anything, and in fact if I’m not confusing this incident (I could be....there’s so many lately) it was triggered from the bottom? I could be wrong, it either way, ski cuts are a tool and have a place, but they are pretty specific in their utility.

Naw dude you sound pretty knowledgeable.

the only thing i do when i ski deep pow in bc areas is the double cross cut test where you ski across a face, hike up 10 feet and ski another cross cut above the first to see if it calves off a section. Id like to get an air bag thing at some point bc they seem to be pretty amazing at saving ppl.

very sad but dying in an avalanche is one of the best ways to go if ur gonna go. Everybody thinks ur a badass.

Better at least than accidentally autoerotic asphyxiating yourself to death.

 

[c-fries]

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/59084

for anyone interested, the full UAC incident report has been released.

 

[SkiBum.]

Damn tear jerker reading that one this morning

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/59084

for anyone interested, the full UAC incident report has been released.

 

[eheath]

Damn tear jerker reading that one this morning

Sad indeed, another incident where people skied the zone multiple times before it slid, a very good report by the UAC.

**This post was edited on Feb 12th 2021 at 1:49:36pm

 

[MarkusFin]

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/59084

for anyone interested, the full UAC incident report has been released.

Thanks

 

[Bended_Toenail]

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/59084

for anyone interested, the full UAC incident report has been released.

Thanks for posting.

Tragic story, really makes you think about how many people don't even realize that just because a zone had been skied it can still slide.

 

[broto]

https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanche/59084

for anyone interested, the full UAC incident report has been released.

I can't imagine getting a signal on your beacon, getting a probe strike, and successfully digging up a victim only to find out it was a complete stranger not from your party. Twice. All the while your girlfriend is still buried somewhere. Jesus christ. That dude Chris (who is a goddamn hero) is gonna need a good therapist after all that. I was definitely choking up reading through the report this morning. So incredibly sad.

 

[skierman]

Thanks for posting.

Tragic story, really makes you think about how many people don't even realize that just because a zone had been skied it can still slide.

Going up for multiple runs during an insanely sketchy day in the backcountry. Yup.