[mchin]

This AM's Eastern Sierra Avalanche Bulletin had this injury report, glad to see the injured party survived what must have been an interesting experience:

"Some of you may have heard about a cornice triggering an avalanche
yesterday in the Ellery Lake area. One person was seriously hurt
when
the large cornice he was standing on fractured above "Chute Out".
The
skier suddenly found himself tumbling down Chute Out in a large
sluff
avalanche. Though he miraculously survived the tumbling and ended up
on the surface, he was severely injured with eight broken ribs, a
punctured lung, crushed shoulder and severe knee injuries. This is a
sobering reminder that cornices often break back much farther from
the
edge than you might think."

She later says this about the snowpack stability,
"The snowpack around Tioga Pass, at least in the Ellery Bowl area,
appears to be stable. The load of the cornice dropping into Chute
Out
did not trigger a slab avalanche, which is quite surprising given
the
wind and snowfall of the last 10 days."

[gimpy]

was reminded of that fact myself after some personal stupidity of my own this weekend w/ a cornice . fortunately, i also found a stable snowpack after the drop and was able to stop above the chunk and sluff pile.

[Kellie]

[joesnow]

Don't worry Kellie, gimpy's cornice plummet wasn't that big of a deal....at least not compared to the near slide for life off the top of a cloud shrouded Halls an hour earlier. I think Mrs. gimpy must be close to perfecting the formula for that "Always Away Skiing Husbands" curse of the Sierras. It was an eerily exciting morning.

I think the good news (same as reported on Ellery) is that the deep layers of the snowpack seem solid. I set off a little crown coming down, but it was probably only 6" to 12" deep (only the most recent storm deposit) and it did not stay intact as a slab upon sliding. And of course gimpy did a superb job of load testing the trigger point below the cornice, and nothing moved. Spring could be a bit different, especially based on what I've heard about the snowpack on the great eastside this year.

Hope the Chute Out survivor recovers well.
_________________
Viva La Nina

[mchin]

We--Lucy, Telenater, Walter Sobchak,Walt's friend Brandon and I were grateful to get the conditions on the Halls area from Gimpy on Saturday as we were headed to there on Sunday. We ended up going to Tallac and had great conditions skiing the NE bowl and avy bowl.

I can't get the interchange from their--gimpy, Walter and others, previous trip to Halls out of my mind

What gimpy said as he drops into Halls- "The snow sucks, it's crusty, go to mini (halls)"
What Walter heard from somewhere above gimpy- "Show bucks, it's a must, I've got the skinny!"

[steeleman]

I hope he heals up quick. That is quite a spill and very fortunate to have made it out. Another report ID's the skier as one of the TPR gang.

http://www.telemarkskier.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000078;p=1#000000

[steeptrees]

Whoa, chute out is NOT a line to take a ride down on anything but ptex. That cirque picks up some gnarly wind transport (especially this year I bet!); it will be interesting to hear how far back the cornice failed. I've seen stress fractures 40-50 feet behind the lips up there (thinking 20-30 foot of overhang). Hopefully Sue will have a full incident report soon. On a lighter side note, (eyewitness stories, please), maybe some new lines in the cirque will be in play this year with the wacky wind directions!
Best wishes to Bill and his strong recovery!

[Clyde]

More info: http://www.rockclimbing.com/post/1343671#1343671

Bad deal. Uninsured. Amazing survival

Don't know the area. How far did he crawl to the road? Have a GoogleEarth location?

[steeleman]

thanks for the update. a real bummer. cornice break probably happened around 37° 55.57'N, 119° 13.90'W or here. Depending on how far the slide went, the road isn't *that* far, but i sure don't envy Bill. I doubt I would've made it to the road or even survived something like that. Speedy recovery to Bill.

[Pete]

AWWWww Man! This totally sucks.

Bill - Heal strong and heal soon. My hopes and thoughts are with you!

This thread really caught my attention when Mark posted it. I was at TPR with some of the TTips gang in January. I met Bill quickly during our trip. While we tracked up Gaylor on Big Sunday, Bill was hard at work clearing the paths between the lodge and the cabins for us.

I was fortunate to get back to TPR a second time March 12th to 15th. I talked to Bill a few more times on the second trip. There was another Big Sunday style storm on Tuesday. Wednesday after one quick bread run we reluctantly skied out, just days before Bill’s accident. He was down at the gate that afternoon where we were loading gear before the long drive home. Bill patiently answered my questions about the name of chutes and ski routes visible from the gate. We agreed we both dream about skiing the killer steep chutes, but that we probably never will. We also figured out Bill shares mutual friends with my cousin from Quincy I was skiing with. From our short conversations I am sure Bill is an absolutely genuine and gentle mountain soul. The exception may be when he wrestles with the snow blower on a cold morning.

I write a lot of TR’s in my head that never make it to print for time and ability reasons. One photo I could have included in a TR was this one of Bill helping us load gear into the new TPR pickup truck / snow cat taken the Sunday before his fall.


Along with EJ, Bill needs our help and good karma! Check out the link in Clyde’s post for how to contribute.

Two more thoughts.
Mitch decided to bail on his trip to TPR due to EJ’s accident. It is a small world and we are all closely connected. Had he gone he may have arrived to find the usually upbeat TPR crew in a more somber mood.

I know we all want to feed the adrenaline eating rat that gnaws in our bellies, but we could use a lot less posts like the ones for Joanna, EJ and Bill.
Back it down a notch and play safe out there friends.
Pete

[seki]

Thanks for posting this, Mark. All the best to Bill for a full recovery.

[Ryan S]

oh man! best wishes to you Bill on a speedy recovery!

I think I remember meeting Bill last year on our honeymoon trip to TPR where we were taken very good care of.

Nice to see the TPR truck is now fully equipped to haul supplies. Probaby a lot better than snowmobiles on bare pavement and trucks with a broken shock