I live near mammoth, this is the most recent.
As you have read, 12 people injured, 3 dead, 1 more in critical condition.
Evidently, 4 patrollers were skiing down to set up gates around the chair three "stinkpot" or "stinkhole." Because of the location there is about 20 feet of snow there right now. The heat of the fumarole and the wind, a large cave had formed under the snow. As the patrollers approached, 2 fell through the collapsed roof. They were the first 2 casualties. An older patroller went to try to help them. He was not dead on scene, but died later at the hospital. The 4th patroller... I don't know his story, but he is in critical condition.
The cave rescue specialists had to be called in to handle this. I believe several of them were injured, but most of the other injuries were from other patrollers during th rescue attept. I'm not sure on the details of the rest.
Tomorrow morning, there will be a meeting with the entirety of the ski patrol. If they don't beleive that they can handle their jobs, the mountain will be shut down until they decide to come back to work. With all the new snow (6 feet), patrollers are very important, and the mountain can't operate without them. Kudos to mountain management for letting them decide if they need to be with their families tomorrow.
Someone who was there wrote this on the mammoth forums... I hate some people:
"You know one of the worst things I've seen was the 'guest's' reaction to this tragedy today. The lack of compassion was astronomical. Rumours were insane. People taking pictures, one guy overheard saying "they probably deserved it, they were probably in the wrong place," the one who complained that a patroller was rude and unsympathetic when he asked why chair 5 wasn't running, and don't forget those who came into the lodges to ask for refunds because we closed the chairs over "just some patrollers, that's not a good enough reason." Didn't even seem to register with them that chairs are closed for...yes the GUEST's safety, though I could care less about that when I heard and witnessed those incidents today. How can people be so heartless? To be so cruel when lives of our friends are lost, because it is an inconvenience to their vacation. Sickening"
As for the geology, I took some classes on this.
about 700,000 years ago, there was a huge volcano that collapsed to form the Long Valley Caldera.
Mammoth Mountain, if I remember right, is a dormant volcano made up of about 12 domes, extruded along the rim of Long Valley caldera from about 200,000 years ago
Here is a crappy picture of the thing. There are acutally various openings and cracks, and usually a fair amount of steam coming out of it. This is only a small bit of it:
if you want more info on the vent, you can go here:
http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/mmf_main.htm
As you have read, 12 people injured, 3 dead, 1 more in critical condition.
Evidently, 4 patrollers were skiing down to set up gates around the chair three "stinkpot" or "stinkhole." Because of the location there is about 20 feet of snow there right now. The heat of the fumarole and the wind, a large cave had formed under the snow. As the patrollers approached, 2 fell through the collapsed roof. They were the first 2 casualties. An older patroller went to try to help them. He was not dead on scene, but died later at the hospital. The 4th patroller... I don't know his story, but he is in critical condition.
The cave rescue specialists had to be called in to handle this. I believe several of them were injured, but most of the other injuries were from other patrollers during th rescue attept. I'm not sure on the details of the rest.
Tomorrow morning, there will be a meeting with the entirety of the ski patrol. If they don't beleive that they can handle their jobs, the mountain will be shut down until they decide to come back to work. With all the new snow (6 feet), patrollers are very important, and the mountain can't operate without them. Kudos to mountain management for letting them decide if they need to be with their families tomorrow.
Someone who was there wrote this on the mammoth forums... I hate some people:
"You know one of the worst things I've seen was the 'guest's' reaction to this tragedy today. The lack of compassion was astronomical. Rumours were insane. People taking pictures, one guy overheard saying "they probably deserved it, they were probably in the wrong place," the one who complained that a patroller was rude and unsympathetic when he asked why chair 5 wasn't running, and don't forget those who came into the lodges to ask for refunds because we closed the chairs over "just some patrollers, that's not a good enough reason." Didn't even seem to register with them that chairs are closed for...yes the GUEST's safety, though I could care less about that when I heard and witnessed those incidents today. How can people be so heartless? To be so cruel when lives of our friends are lost, because it is an inconvenience to their vacation. Sickening"
As for the geology, I took some classes on this.
about 700,000 years ago, there was a huge volcano that collapsed to form the Long Valley Caldera.
Mammoth Mountain, if I remember right, is a dormant volcano made up of about 12 domes, extruded along the rim of Long Valley caldera from about 200,000 years ago
Here is a crappy picture of the thing. There are acutally various openings and cracks, and usually a fair amount of steam coming out of it. This is only a small bit of it:
if you want more info on the vent, you can go here:
http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/mmf_main.htm
