Big white inbounds avalanche.

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The debree field.
 
Bottom line is, ^ is an idiot. It is impossible to probe every section of a hill and check stability no matter where you are, inbounds or out. The difference in stability within a drop as small as 200ft can be huge. I've seen stable conditions break sluffs that could bury you or knock you out. And even the best skiers, which I am not, can make a heavy turn to correct posture and end up in a long slide that is to big to ride through. Wish we could all be as knowlegable as you.
 
It was an inbounds avalanche. It's the resort & ski patrol that needs to learn some lessons, dude.
 
Wow, thats wild how big the slide actually was. I'll be heading up there today and I'll post back on any inside news. Good to hear you made it out okay Steven, Hopefully they can find out where the missing person person is first thing thismorning. They've closed the Cliff chair so its safe to say I'll be hitting up Gem for the most part.
 
Thats pretty fucking crazy, I was at the parachute bowl a few years ago, I am glad I wasnt there when it happened. Im glad you made it out ok, I heard on the news one guy didnt

 
yeah for sure!   it hadn't snowed for the past 2 days before the avalanche, and there wasn't a big fluctuation in temperature (as the news and big white P.R. would have you beleive).      it's weird because they usually blast that area a lot.   
 
exactly, no one does in bounds, its just extra luggage, even if the person had that equipment the avalanch still wouldve been triggered.
 
I carry everything most days, and patrol will find you a lot faster if you have a beacon on. It's safety equipment, not preventative equipment.
 
Congratulations, you lived! You must have done something right. To the guy giving you grief, I have this to say, slides happen bra, live.
 
I have seen alot of ignorant people over the years on this site, but ou have got to be one of the worst. To expect all skiers that ski to have avi training is by far the dumbest thing to expect. Thats like expecting everyone who fly's on airplanes to know how do fly the plane. The fact that there was a inbounds slide is not uncommon, it does happen from time to time, but fact that it did happen in a area that is spose to be a controled in bounds area means that the resort is in the wrong. It is then their responsibility to let people know that there is infact avalanch danger, and to make sure that the danger is controled to maintain the safty of their customers. Alltho the skier may have set off the slide does not in any way lay the fault all on him, and to say that it does is just making you come off as a asshole
 
Thats pretty sketch for sure. I always where my beacon on pow days at Alpine for sure.

Good to see you made it. There was a pretty burly one over at Squaw the other day taht burried two people. luckily found them both and both had compound breaks. one on the femur the other tibula and fibula. ha leg bones stickin out must be grosse.
 
yep. i know how that is. first time i got a taste of real pow pow was out in breck over spring break. my cousin and i hiked 3 hours to a peak and skied it, stupid thing i have ever done in my life. next day the whole face slid luckily no one was hurt because it happened right when the guy dropped in. all im trying to say is it is easy for an east coast kid to get caught up, and this happened IN BOUNDS so it is not his fault....
 
has that snowboarder been found yet?

Too all the people who are debating inbounds/outbounds, realize that the ones disagreeing are european. There is a huge difference between european resorts and N. american resorts in relation to what is out of bounds.

It has nothing to do with policies or beliefs or cultural differences regarding saftey and liabilty.

Look how a N. American resort is set up and look at how a European resort is set up. In N. America, even in Whistler, a resort is a controlled playground, everything is monitored and patrolled. The boundaries are clear and defined by signs and more importantly by the terrain.

A European resort is a lot less structured. Picture a lift going up a mountain and thats it (to an extent).

When I am skiing in N. America I expect some sort of safety but still have to be responsible for myself. However, the mountain itself expects people of all abilities to possibly be going everywhere on the mountain. In Europe, as soon as you go off the groomer its game time. There could be bottomless cliffs, huge crevasses (pretty much unheard of in NA), and all sorts of dangers. There is no notion of security and the terrain reflects that.

To the euros, think of pow skiing inbounds in N. America the equivalent of groomers in europe (not difficulty wise, just safety and how much it is controlled).

But still no matter where you are skiing look out for yourself.
 
an avalanche forecaster and expert came to talk to my school (westminster in Utah) and he said 99.999% of avalanches happen out of bound so on a sketch day stay in bounds, its the safest plac.e This kids was INBOUNDS and expected it to be safe like it should have been, not his fault
 
I pray that he has been found. Rumor has it the slide was up to 8 meters deep in some areas. I hope he was else where on the mountain.
 
They found the "body" of the snowboarder around 3:00PM this afternoon. Choppers were flying around all day. I saw you on the news just now, too Steven. Good story bud, glad you made it out okay. It's really scary knowing now that the poor fellow didn't make it. They said some areas had snow up to 8 meters deep towards the end of the slide. The probes they were using too were going sticking in right to the top.
 
I usually carry all of it. Didn't use to, but decided it couldn't hurt. In the event of an inbounds slide, you have a pretty good chance with a beacon on, not so much w/o (although 8 m of debris is big-timee)
 
wow, so sick that you survived that. for people who are saying its just an avalanche. big white and the interior dont get avalanches...ever. ive skied there sooo many times and this is the first time i heard about one. too bad for that one guy i thought everyone was found.

it was all closed off today and helicopters were flying, probably checking it out?
 
i fear my karma may have taken a hit after this thread. c'est la vie.

i feel perhaps i should clarify my position:

the fact is, once upon a time, i WAS this kid: i came about as close to dying as is is possible to come (without actually dying) due entirely to my own inadequate knowledge. i ignored many obvious telltale signs that the couloir i was about to drop into was going to slide. i dropped in, it slid and in trying to escape it, i went over about 100 metres of near vertical rock face.

now this event was entirely my fault, but i chose to learn from it and educate myself in snow safety. therefore, i wasn't trying to come over all "holier than thou" with my posts in this thread, i just think the threadmaker should learn his lesson, like i did. thats all.

and surely this kid's experience actually proves my point (that anyone skiing pow anywhere should have beacon etc AT LEAST) whether the resort is responsible for making its in-bounds safe or not?

 
Well, in this case, the fault lies on the resort. In North America, skiers skiing inbounds should expect that steps have been taken to make the situation as safe as possible. At most NA ski resorts, most chairs don't (and shouldn't) open until the area is almost guaranteed to be safe. In Europe, from what I gather, there is only 'patrolled' and 'not patrolled' areas. In NA, it's out of bounds, and in bounds. Anything inbounds should be completely safe.
 
at the end of the day skiing is a dangerous sport. however you have to take responsibility for your self and other skiers. if something goes wrong, esp if you triggered it you shouldnt go looking to blame others. look at yourself pretty carefully and learn from the experience.

i support rastafariders views, although i cant be bothered to get in an argument about it
 
everyones has valid points on here, theres no point in arguing about whos right or wrong. i suppose we all just have to accept that skiing is a dangerous sport, and the mountains need to be respected, whether inbounds or not.

we just have a different way of doing things here in Europe, thats all. hope the guy who survived it (steven?) is alright. hope this doesnt put you off skiing dude.
 
Someone actually got a shot of it ripping out

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All these inbounds slides are flippin' scary, especially since many of them have ridiculously large crowns.

 
sobering news, they've found a body burried 3-4 meters underneath the main slide area. They're not saying if it was in fact the missing boarder, but I think it's safe to assume that it was. The whole argument about whether it was the resorts fault or not has been beated to death, so I won't say anything about that anymore. RIP.
 
Could Big White possibly be facing a heavy lawsuit for this? If so that is horrible news for powder skiers out there. Let's all hope the patrollers have good luck in their search.
 
i am now the firmest believer in fate. this is my relation to the avalanche...whilst such a miniscule thing, it really makes you think:

skiing sunshine a week ago, i broke my arm dropping a pretty casual 20 footer in the garbage chutes. i had dropped it 6 times already that day, but on the 7th, the snow had built up more than i anticipated, causing a big fall. where it gets intertesting is that 10 minutes earlier, my mate lost his pole in the snow skiing the same chute. being lazy, instead of hiking up the hill 100 metres to help him look for it, i said i would ski down to the standish chair, then ski back down to him and help him look. however, when i got back to the garbage chutes, i looked down to learn that they had found the pole, and the next thing you knew, my mate says 'are you going to drop it again', followed by, 'i cant see why not'. an hour later im in hospital with a disloacted elbow and broken arm, with a doctor telling me i cant ski for 5-6 weeks. thus ends my upcoming road trip to the horse, SS and big white.

so i fly home, to be greeted by my girlfriend who says, 'you know, this was pribably fate, maybe one of you (my mate was also with me, who returned home with a medial ligament injury) was going to die or something'....we laughed that off, only to look on the net yesterday, and learn of this avvy, occurring at big white, on the the day that was going to be our first day skiing there, in the bowl that we had fantasized about skiing for nearly a year. then we find an aussie snowboarder has passed away.

rest in peace brother, and many condolences to your family

 
That is once massive slide.

I don't blame the skier, and it may not even have been the mountains fault.

Nothing is ever 100% when it comes to mother nature. Anything can happen at anytime.
 
In the interests of safety for their visitors RCR will be taking the leading industry stance in banning snow in all forms from it's resorts.
 
buddy, the majority of people responding to this Thread are West Coast Canadians who live, work and play in the mountains. You're British. You go to, what, Leeds? I guess that means you have your 2 week ski holiday and Consider yourself a wilderness expert? Go get lost on Ben Nevis again and ski some pow at Milton Keynes indoor ski center you stupid loli-brit.
 
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