The tragic avalanche accident that killed 4 in one of the Wasatch Canyons February 6th.
Video of accident scene
For those unfamiliar with snowpack, at the end the snowpack is detailed. It would be unusual to trigger a slide this deep, perhaps the presence of seven people tipped the balance. Or perhaps it was triggered from a locally thinner slab location. The lower part of the slab looks quite strong.
The other recent major avalanche accident near Ophir, Colorado.
CAIC Avalanche Ophir Accident Report
It is a scary and tragic read. Good lessons on both of these avalanche tragedies.
This is now up to 24 dead this month as one person dies nearly every day this week. www.Avalanche.org (accidents).
You don't really need a transceiver in these types of massive avalanches; they are unlikely to do any good. One victim was killed while wearing an avalanche balloon.....
In Washington, after Monday or Tuesday, this should go back to a more typical scenario of avalanches soon after storms or during warm periods (including sun soon).
Perhaps, it depends on your perspective -- I used to share a house with a hard core rock climber, at the time I was doing a lot of whitewater paddling. His view was that whitewater was very scary -- "once you drop into a rapid, you are committed and you can't stop and back down, with rock climbing, I can move a carefully as I need to and think through each move".
It sounds like his objection isn't really about being committed so much as it's about it happening too fast to be able to make considered decisions. Everybody likes to split the world into two kinds of people, here's my attempt:
There are slow sports and there are fast sports. Rock climbing is about deciphering the sequence, about skill, endurance, it attracts people with a different comfort zone than white water paddlers or downhill bikes.
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