 Poster: A snowHead
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Massive snowstorms which have swept the Sierra Nevada mountains around Lake Tahoe for the past 14 days have dumped up to 6m of new snow - the heaviest snowfalls since 1916. Flooding, avalanches and ice damage have hit several US states. "The snowbanks along Interstate 80 [a major route in northern California] are about eight to 10 feet high. It's like you're going through a maze," said Jane Dulaney, spokeswoman for the Rainbow Lodge west of Donner Summit, a high point on the road.
Photo: Alpine Meadows 9 January...
Reports from the Washington Post and ABC News.
And this photo from Quad City Times gives an impression of what people are dealing with on their doorsteps.
This snowNews thread from a week ago reported the unusual situation then - but snow accumulations on the high mountains have now doubled.
Anyone out there like to give us some personal impressions of what's happening? Is it proving difficult to access the skiing?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 10-01-05 12:17; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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David,
Try this for a regularly updated report from the locals.
Telemark Talk
Dave
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Mon 10-01-05 11:47; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Also check out the WinterHighland site here:
http://www.winterhighland.info/forums/list.php?6
as Alan is off doing a winter season there. He has made it into the Resort between snow storms, but seems to be mainly stuck in town or at the bottom of the mountain at the moment.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Dave J, very interesting reports. One of those posters talks of 152 mph wind speeds. With that amount of snow blowing around in hurricane-force winds I should think the avalanche danger is phenomenal.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Is Jef there?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Wow! Clobbered when on a chair lift! Amazing.
And I note the resort's response is not noted as impressive. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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My god, that's a really horrific story.
Surely the lift shouldn't even have been running in the first place if the avalanche risk above was that extreme. The resort must have some culpability here?
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Some extra details from a local as follows:
I spoke to a couple people who were at the scene but I don’t have much to add. The top operator stopped the chair as the blast of the avalanche came over a small ridge. The avalanche knocked a boy out of the chair burying him in a small stand of trees just off the lower right of the picture above. A probe line was setup (not that thing on the pic) and most people at the scene stayed to help. The snow had a lot of debris making probing difficult. S&R arrived adding to the search including looking for others possibly buried above. The body was found by one of the dogs several hours after the event. He was buried four feet and trauma my have been the cause of death.
The entire cirque above released larger than it had in the 40 years history of the ski area. The overall snow depth is not record setting yet. The area above the other chair had been bombed that morning releasing only one small sluff. Where the slab released has never had avalanche control. Area management said they are changing their snow safety practice. There have been a few other larger slab releases in adjoining canyons prompting the forest service to call for a voluntary evacuation of homes in a canyon the southeast.
I’m not going to go into who should be held responsible. The ski area was purchased early last season from the family the built that place. Snow safety is still run the same as it has been for many years. Forest service has to be aware of the current practice. Prior to this there was debris from past slides right up to the edge of the ski trail. That debris was heavily overgrown. I am looking forward to the official report.
The boy who was killed was an honor student and in school sports at a local junior high school.
More comments and speculation at http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2108&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Another news report on this tragedy from the Las Vegas Sun. Seems that slope has never had anything like that occur in 40 years. And the surprising fact that the chairlift had no safety bar.
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| Investigators will try to determine whether rushing snow or an "air blast" pushed ahead of it swept the boy off the 20-foot-high lift, Strait said. The lift travels a little more than a half-mile on a moderately difficult slope. Chairs have no safety restraining bars. |
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Well maybe after events like this the chaps over the ocean will consider adding them, after all they are called saftey bars for a good reason 
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Very few Chairlifts in the US dont have safety bars .
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You know it makes sense.
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Sorry my last post should of read
Very few Chairlifts in the US HAVE safety bars [/quote]
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Here is a follow up news report from the Review-Journal on the chairlift-avalanche incident. As the article points out, avalanches into marked ski runs are rare enough, but avalanches into moving ski lifts are very rare indeed. This boy was incredibly unlucky.
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Poster: A snowHead
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stanton, most of the chairlifts I use have safety bars, and I generally use them. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I think the safety bar issue is a red herring in this incident. If the forces were great enough to pull the boy out of his seat, the forces may have been in a direction that would have raised the bar.
The key issue is why the avalanche came down into a lift-served pisted ski area, with the ski patrol having apparently OK'ed the slopes above. The area was apparently closed to the public the day after the avalanche.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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David Goldsmith, I agree with the you on the safety bar issue. As I read the rest of the story it did seem that ski patrol may not had paid too much attention to the slopes above because blasting to one side didn't trigger anything? The area would have to be closed after the incident anyway - pending investigation. A very unfortunate event
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Heavy snowstorms have also been blasting Utah. This report from The Salt Lake Tribune, including:
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| As much as 5 feet of new snow was recorded at the ski areas in Little and Big Cottonwood canyons, said Brian McInerney, a weather service hydrologist. Snowbird Ski Resort said it has surpassed 300 inches of snow since the season opening, with a base of 123 inches. |
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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A further avalanche has hit lift towers at Lee canyon.
Below copied from Telemark tips:
1/11-- The unstable snowpack on Mt. Charleston above the Las Vegas (NV) Ski and Snowboard Resort, site of last Sunday's freak avalanche accident in which a teenager was swept off a chairlift, continues. This afternoon, sources on the scene told Telemarktips that another avalanche swept down off the mountain today, burying a "shack" and the "top two towers" of another lift at the currently closed ski area. Further details remain sketchy, but this second major slide was said to have originated in the area above the resort that is normally subject to avalanche control by ski area personnel. The lift involved is reportedly not the same chair on which Sunday's accident occurred, but rather is the other main lift accessing terrain of the upper part of the resort. The events of the past couple of days on Mt. Charleston highlight the extreme avalanche danger in many parts of the western U.S. at the moment. Be careful out there.
http://www.telemarktips.com/TeleNews.htm
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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See this EpicSki thread for pics of the skiing in the Sierra--and one of 18' in the parking lot!
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18 ft. . . . and I'm going to the alps . . . crap!
And because I said to myself "as long as that Fuhrer wanabe's in Pen Ave., I ain't goin' back" I'm gonna miss it.
Oh well sometimes principle should rise above pleasure, whatever the hurt. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Masque, just to make it hurt a little more - it's nice and sunny now, and there is still untracked powder!
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Quick update from T-Tips
Back to the Spring Mountains for a minute. Over the last couple of days there have been mandatory evacuations of several homes in the mountains. The roads up to Lee and Kyle canyons have been closed to the public. Many major slides have occurred in all canyons. One road in Kyle canyon has a 20’ tall deposition pile across it. The second chair to be hit by an avalanche is beyond repair for the season. This same chair has been hit by several slides in my time at Lee Canyon but nothing like this time. After one of those slides the area built a lift / patrol shack out of ½” steel plate. That building was crushed. The Three Springs area in Lee Canyon, where the tragic slide originated is said to be ringed by a large crown estimated to be +/- 6’. Other than the tragic loss of life there are a lot of disasters happening. What is happening here seems minor in the larger scheme of things.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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This report in Tahoe Daily Tribune is about how the resorts now plan to capitalise on the snow they've gained. In fact, so much snow came down in the Northern California / Nevada mountains that some places lost days of revenue while roads were blocked.
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It certainly wasn't a picnic for Kirkwood Mountain Resort, which lost six major ski days to road closures primarily off Highway 88 and horrendous, stormy conditions.
"We came into the holiday with a giant lead. But we were pummeled," Kirkwood President Tim Cohee said.
The place was closed off on Dec. 30, 31 and Jan. 1, 8 and 9 because of avalanche hazards. |
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Further from T tips
'1/14-- Clear weather finally came to Mt. Charleston and the Las Vegas (NV) Ski and Snowboard Resort yesterday, giving our source on the scene a first good look at the mountain... and the starting zone of the avalanche that killed 13 year-old snowboarder Brett Hutchison last Sunday (see stories below). The crown is said to have reached nearly 20 feet at its highest point and runs for a reported 1/3 of a mile, "or more." The huge snow slide was what is known as a "climax avalanche," one that runs all the way to bare ground. Our source reports that rock and dirt were clearly visible directly below the giant crown. We are working on obtaining photos, and possibly video, of the scene.
The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort remains closed while resort personnel, snow safety experts and the United States Forest Service review the area's avalanche control procedures and work on details of an upgraded plan for the future. Meanwhile, the weather has turned clear and cold, "the mountain is freezing up hard, setting us up for a repeat if we get a lot more snow again," said our source. With today not even quite mid-January, and an apparent El-Nino weather pattern in full effect, the area likely has several months of possibly heavy snow still ahead. During the last El Nino in '98, we skied 30 inches of fresh snow in the So Cal mountains, directly to the west of Mt. Charleston, during the second week of May!'
Thats one big avalanche.
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More on the freak avalanche that took the boy off the chairlift from the Las Vegas Sun
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An expert said there may have been no way for a southern Nevada ski area to predict the avalanche that killed a 13-year-old snowboarder.
"When this avalanche released, it was unprecedented," said Doug Abromeit, a U.S. Forest Service investigator from the National Avalanche Center in Ketchum, Idaho. "I don't know that it could have been foreseen."
Abromeit declined Thursday to discuss specifics about his investigation of the death of Allen Brett Hutchison.
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You know it makes sense.
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It could be a fair proposition. Huge snowfalls, or rare wind conditions (or a combination), can produce slides that might only occur once in several centuries. The mega avalanche that smashed buildings and people in Galtur a few years back was once in a blue moon.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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California's recent snowstorms are put into historical perspective in this article from Monterey Herald. It contains some amazing statistics and anecdotes.
The 1951-2 winter put down enormous quantities of snow, which is interesting because the preceding winter - specifically January 1951 - saw some of the most destructive avalanches in history in the Alps.
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FAQ
