 Poster: A snowHead
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A 22 year old has died in the first fatality of the season in Utah. He was skiing above Big Cottonwood Canyon and although his friend located him with a transceiver and was able to dig him out in 5-10 minutes and before the ski patrol arrived to assist, the skier did not recover... See this article from deseretnews.com
Edit - photo shows a successful rescue - see lower down the topic.
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| Seven people from Solitude's ski patrol met members of Brighton's ski patrol to help the men, Reddell said. Solitude ski patrol members were able to reach the scene quickly because the resort had been doing avalanche control on its edges near the victim. |
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The avalanche measured about 50 yards wide. It was 1 to 2 feet deep at the fracture line. Its depth in the deepest areas was unknown, Wardle said.
Experts with the Utah Avalanche Center were expected to probe the avalanche today to determine whether it was triggered by the skiers. |
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 12-12-04 12:06; edited 2 times 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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More on this from the Salt Lake Tribune including these surprising statistics
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| About 10,000 avalanches occur each winter in Utah, and of these, people unintentionally trigger about 100. About 20 people get caught in the slides, on average, and four people die each year, according to the Avalanche Center's Web site. |
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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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The dead man has now been identified. More on this from KSL TV. And an update from deseretnews.com with more details about how the accident happened .....
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He was the first of two people to die in avalanches along the Wasatch Front in the past two days. In addition, two snowshoers were missing late Saturday.
"Zach was in the lead; his friend was in the safe zone," the young man's father, Scott Eastman, said, recounting the story Zach's companion told about what happened on the mountain. "Zach crossed into open space and went to the other side. He said the snow felt sketchy, (so Zach) turned and started to come back . . . and then it just happened."
Both young men were experienced skiers who had frequented that part of the backcountry, Scott Eastman said. Zachary Eastman had trained in avalanche safety and spent some time working as a volunteer for the National Ski Patrol in the Park City area last year. And as early as last week, both men were honing their skills with avalanche beacons, Scott Eastman said. |
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A provisional report of the incident from the Utah Avalanche Center posted Saturday night indicates that the slide in which Eastman died was between 1 and 3 feet deep and about 200 feet wide.
Eastman was traversing a 35-degree, northeast-facing slope, and the snow fractured about 80 feet above him, according to the report written by avalanche forecaster Drew Hardesty. |
This site on KUTV has a list of available streaming video links - mainly interviews with newscasters - including the missing snowshoers, the 2 sad deaths, avalanche victim location training, and the 12 year old who got his backpack caught on a chairlift. Note: Firefox browser users must enable IE to see these videos.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Sun 12-12-04 12:57; edited 2 times in total
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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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Good News : One snowmobiler survived being buried upside down for more than 8 minutes. See another excellent article from the deseretnews.com web site. At the end of the article is a link to the Utah Avalanche Centre.
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Fortunately, Dejong was wearing an avalanche beacon that allowed Workman to locate the area where his buddy was buried.
Workman dug with his hands for a couple of minutes before being joined by Corey Malan of Ogden.
"We just started digging frantically," Malan said.
The rescue
The pair located Dejong's boot about 5 feet below the surface when Malan's two friends caught up with a shovel.
In a painstakingly slow five to eight minutes the foursome uncovered more leg, a knee, a thigh, a torso and finally Dejong's head, which was buried face down.
"At that point it was pretty dark," Workman said. "He was purple and blue and was pretty discolored. At one time I thought he was dead. I thought it was too late."
The rescuers said there was just a faint hint of breath coming from Dejong's mouth, and Workman offered some mouth to mouth that seemed to help.
The group had already used a cell phone to call for a medical helicopter, and as they waited Dejong lay unconscious for 10 to 12 minutes.
When the helicopter appeared over the mountain, Dejong suddenly sprang to life.
"The first thing out of his mouth was, 'I just can't believe you guys found me,' " Malan said. |
Bad News : one other man in the area has died in yet another avalanche and the 2 showshoers are still missing.
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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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God, that guy was so lucky (given that he was in the avalanche at all, and ended up under the snow and upside down)! Of course, if he had been luckier he would have been right side up and on the surface as I was in my avalanche. Or, come to think of it, if he had been even luckier he wouldn't have triggered the avalanche at all.
But of course, in reality, none of it was luck.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sadly more bad news. One of the snowshoers has been killed in yet another avalanche and his buddy is still missing. Use this link to KUTV 2NEWSVIDEO and it is the top of the list at the time of posting. This video includes footage of the search dogs and recovery of the body.
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A sad finale to this news thread - the 4th man has now been found dead under 8 feet of avalanched snow. 2 more video clips are on the link above. The order of the links keeps changing as new stories are added but I think all on this topic are still available. A tragic start to the season in Utah - their annual death toll from avalaches has already been reached in one weekend. I know nothing about the snowmobiler but the skiers and snowshoers were experienced, well-trained individuals who still got caught out. A lesson for all off-pisters.
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The Utah area is in the news again. 7 avalanches in one day and 3 very lucky people including one man who was partly buried and had no transceiver or shovel. Sking in Snowbasin. See this article from the Salt Lake Tribune and this
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Three people skiing in Hell's Canyon...went past some "out of bounds" signs.
One person in the group saw an avalanche coming...and yelled to the other two. |
from KSL-TV with a Realplayer video link.
But it's not all bad news in Utah. Here's a longish article entitled
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The greatest snow on earth?
That’s what they say about Utah’s off-piste powder. Sean Newsom has a blizzard of fun testing the claim |
from the Times Online. Sean skied with a guide who took advice from the avalanche patrol before selecting the routes.
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