Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 485 Location: Elmore, VT
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:31 pm Post subject: Avy danger in Smugglers Notch: a close call
Text below copied and pasted from a friends email yesterday with permission. Just a reminder that VT is not immune to slides (especially after a rain event followed by more snow). His story easily could have had a fatal ending. There are plenty of trees and rocks up there he could have collided with on his 300yd ride...when he stopped his snowboard and pack had been ripped from his back, but the shoulder straps and waist belt were still on him.
---------------------------------
I'll try and give you the brief version: Last Friday around 2:00 decided to hike into notch from Smugg's side with my dog and maybe earn a few turns. Hiked up gully on west side of notch road, located past parking lot and where road narrows, just as it begins descent to Stowe side, behind the yellow sign on right. Gully heads up, steep, (35-40 degrees), straight, no trees, terminating at cliff, maybe 400 yds(?). 6" +/_ fresh on hard pack. 25 feet from cliff, look up at full blown avalanche coming down on me. Pounded to ground, blackness, tumbling as speed increases, gathering snow in gully, heard my dog yealp once, impact after impact, until it stopped. Head was above snow. Dog is there, scared but seems OK, 75' from road. Moved all limbs feet etc- OK. Crunching sound in back. Hurt. Couldn't stand or sit up. Called it in after crawling 20' back up to find pack which was ripped off me with phone. Sled ride to Smugg's, ambulance to Copley, out yesterday. 4 broken ribs, fractured pelvis, bruised kidney, overall feeling of being beat with baseball bat from head to toe. Heavy duty painkillers. Walking with crutches yesterday, a little without today. Full recovery in 4-6 weeks.
Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 14899 Location: following Diogenes, but the bastard has the lamp so I'm just stumbling along in the dark!
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:45 pm Post subject:
Woah! Tough way to get down the hill!
It seems like we have two survivors instead of two recoveries...at least that much is good news.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery to your pal and his canine friend!
Note That makes two NE slide-rides in the last week _________________ Running for the office of redundantly kindly, avuncular blowhard. Thanks for your support
Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 485 Location: Elmore, VT
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:50 pm Post subject:
stevesliva wrote:
Sounds like a natural that started above him. That would be "High" danger.
Was it windy in the starting zone that day? Was it still snowing?
He doesnt think he triggered it, but it just seems too coincidental. I think it was some kind of an atypical slab release or something like that (i took an avy 1 course--as they say, I know just enough to get myself hurt). He thinks it might have been released by sound or by his dog, but who knows. I certainly dont know enough, and he was just trying to get help rather than determine the cause.
Yes, it was windy. I dont think it was outrageous, but it was blowing on that day, and the notch is just what it sounds like, a natrural funnel for wind and snow.
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 15603 Location: EL/R -6.12, SL/A -8.15 in NW VT and slightly south of the Poutine Curtain
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:55 pm Post subject:
ouch. +++vibes+++ good reminder to self. self, be careful. Even in VT. _________________ "I'll just go read some Sylvia Plath now and try to cheer up a bit." - Pinnah
Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 12914 Location: People's Republic
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:01 pm Post subject:
It's not rare at all to have avalanches triggered from below. The way I learned to look at routes in the mountains -- thanks Hacksaw -- is from the top down in terms of what can fall and where will it go.
Glad to know your friend and pup are going to be ok. A very close call indeed! _________________ that sounds like a sure-fire way to get bitch-slapped by devil's club -- dschane
Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 14899 Location: following Diogenes, but the bastard has the lamp so I'm just stumbling along in the dark!
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:17 pm Post subject:
Some of those gullies have rocky breaks that would prevent the lower stress risers affecting sections above.
Quote:
25 feet from cliff, look up at full blown avalanche coming down on me. Pounded to ground
...seems to indicate that the slide started above the cliff and fell outwards and showered down on him as it went over the cliff.
Maybe he yelled or the dog barked and the sound set it off, but snow-pack stress changes he could have created seem to be ruled out. If that scenario is rightly posited, it was a natural gully flusher. Classic wrong time to be there.
Signs missed or misinterpreted? Maybe, but I don't think so. The Notch Gullies run pretty often. Folks get used to the gullys flushing on a short cycle. It's great we now have more beta* and a lucky circumstance that tragedy was avoided.
* It would be good to get more info about the conditions, aspect, prior winds, etc _________________ Running for the office of redundantly kindly, avuncular blowhard. Thanks for your support
Last edited by robrox on Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
Yeah, with those notch gullies and steep sensitive wind slabs, it could be a little natural slough from the gully walls, or a tree bomb, or ice fall hitting the right spot on the right wind slab above him.
Him having a rough ride, yet not being deeply buried makes me thing the slide from above wasn't too huge anyways, but I'm thinking it probably entrained the whole area he was standing and had climbed. (Pretty sure that's what Rob is saying, too) Ouch. Really unlucky to be under a natural trigger like that. Really, really unlucky. So glad him and the dog both stayed near the top!
Last edited by stevesliva on Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 14899 Location: following Diogenes, but the bastard has the lamp so I'm just stumbling along in the dark!
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:33 pm Post subject:
lochsa wrote:
sound cannot trigger an avalanche . . . look it up.
I did and that is the modern consensus.
Thanks.
Sound?
Can shatter glass and perforate living membranes but not affect slabs....check. Got it.
Even so, I'm real sure I don't want Count Basie's band to strike up a fanfare while I walk up some skinny, snow laden chute. _________________ Running for the office of redundantly kindly, avuncular blowhard. Thanks for your support
Last edited by robrox on Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
That's a brutal end to an otherwise nice dog walk!
very glad your friend and dog made it out alive, if badly damaged.
For sure all of those "steep, 35-40deg gullies, with NO TREES" in the Notch are avalanche paths. They flush regularly.
We were in that area skiing the next day (Saturday) and saw plenty of sliding snow. Willow broke off one decent crown in a stream bed, fortunately that was much less steep and it didn't go very far. After we left, a friend ski cut a steeper chute and it slid for several hundred feet, a big one for sure.
With great snow comes great comes great responsibility.
Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 7627 Location: Salt Lake City
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:05 pm Post subject:
robrox wrote:
Can shatter glass and perforate living membranes but not affect slabs....check. Got it.
With glass, it's the resonance. With ultrasonic scalpel, it's the concentration of power at a precise location.
Don't be a fool. Not even a canon blast will deliver enough energy to a slab to trigger an avalanche. When control work uses explosives, it's the concussive wave that triggers the slide, not the loud boom. When slides are triggered remotely, it is through propagation within the snow pack, not the noise of the control work. _________________ Simply put, your task is to be seen and not eaten.
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