[Gil]

NWAC reports: "Preliminary Report: NWAC is saddened to report an avalanche fatality as a result of a cornice fall on Mount St. Helens. On Saturday, March 30, 2024, a snowboarder summited the peak. While standing near the top, he triggered a cornice and fell to his death. Our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and community. Large cornices still overhang many steep alpine slopes. They often fail much farther back than expected. During these warm, sunny periods, they can become weaker and easier to trigger. NWAC staff will work with the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue to compile a report."

[RumiDude]

This sounds like the snowboarder fell into the interior. Is this correct? Rumi

[Randito]

[Gil]

That's all the info NWAC provided.

[Gil]

People walk farther out on those cornices than I would.

[altasnob]

Is a cornice breaking off an avalanche? I think of an avalanche as a layer of snow sliding on a weaker snow layer below. The general public is deathly afraid of avalanches and the media knows this, so every fatality involving snow is dubbed an "avalanche" to help generate clicks. The problem with dubbing this an avalanche is it will skew Washington's overall avalanche statistics. Cornice failure is a risk regardless of avalanche conditions.

[Randito]

[altasnob]

[philfort]

When I saw the title of this thread I was like "wow, that's really unexpected/unusual", then when I read it was a cornice collapse, it was "ah, that makes sense".

[dallasglass]

Hi all, Maybe I can chime in here. You are all asking really great questions, and they show that nature rarely fits into nice neat boxes. At its most basic, we generally define avalanches as snow falling downhill. Indeed the examples of rock and ice can make the lines blurry, and as noted, the media often misconstrues the situation. In the avalanche industry, we generally refer to these as rock fall and ice avalanches. They work on different mechanics and are generally not considered avalanches unless they trigger snow on the slopes below. With our basic definition of snow falling downhill, a cornice is indeed an avalanche on its own. We even have an avalanche forecast problem for it and a classification in our documentation literature. At the end of the day, this was a tragic event, and a person lost his life while recreating in the mountains. We've also all gotten lucky out there. The classification doesn't really matter. We just want to enjoy these wild places and come home safe. While awful, this event certainly helps educate others, and that's a silver lining in a very dark situation. All the best. Dallas Deputy Director: Avalanche Forecaster Northwest Avalanche Center

[dave allyn]

Hardly clickbait, or likely to perpetuate idiocracy or the dumbing down of the human race. Per Oxford dictionary (via Google) "a mass of snow rocks and ice falling rapidly down a mountain". Or from Nat Geo "A mass of snow and other material suddenly and quickly tumbling down a mountain.

[RumiDude]

I suppose that a cornice breaking off over a drop-off is "technically" an avalanche, but it is not what most people, me being one of those people, would consider an avalanche. In the article Randito posted about the death of Joseph Bohlig at Mt St Helens in 2010 describes it as a result of a cornice collapse rather than an avalanche. Anyway, I was just trying to understand what had happened and cornice collapse into the caldera seems to provide a clearer picture of the accident. Regardless, RIP snowboarder. Rumi

[Randito]

[hikingpersonnw]

[Randito]