Avalanche kills experienced skiers

Three skiers killed in a Washington state avalanche on Sunday were highly experienced at backcountry skiing, according to media reports, and one was the head judge of the Freeskiing World Tour, a competitive circuit for extreme skiers in the United States, Canada and South America.

The three, ski tour judge Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and John Brenan, were among a group of a dozen or so skiers who were attempting to ski down a slope near the Stevens Pass ski area in the Cascade Mountains, about an 80-mile drive from Seattle. Among the group were staffers of both ESPN and Powder magazine, who identified the victims and gave accounts of the incident.

Powder magazine senior editor John Stifter said the avalanche was triggered by Jack, who was the seventh skier to head down the slope, which is outside the borders of the resort and its groomed ski runs. Jack triggered a “slab avalanche,” according to Stifter.

The U.S. Forest Service’s National Avalanche Center says dry slab avalanches are the most deadly form of avalanches.

"The slab avalanche is more like a large surface plate that comes off the mountainside and crumbles into blocks as it falls. The boundaries of this plate of snow begin as fracture lines or cracks visible on the snow surface. Unfortunately they may not be visible seconds before the slide," David Sauer writes in an article archived by Avalanche-Center.org.

“Fractures can propagate through the snow at speeds of 50-200 mph. Victims … rarely have a chance to escape,” the Forest Service's Avalanche Awareness website says.

Summary : A group of friends, about a dozen to be exact went out back skiing for the weekend. All skiers were very experienced with the particular style of skiing, yet 3 were caught dead in a avalanche. This was a complete accident and none of the skiers saw it coming. Fact is, that avalanches can travel as slow as 50mph and as fast as 200mph. Either way if the skiers saw this coming they would have barley a change to flee the grounds and avoid the avalanche. The slab avalanche that hit the skiers was one of the most deadliest types of avalanches that can occur. How this avalanche occurs is the slab on top is a surface plat that comes on the mountain and crumbling into blocks instead of little bits of snow, thus pushing the skiers underneath heavy blocks of snow

My Opinion : After reading this artical about the skiers dying in a avalanche i wasn't that surprised about it. Avalanches can be extreamly deadly and if your not keeping a alert eye open you could be in trouble in terms of getting caught by the avalanche. This artical didn't really motivate me to pick a side, however if i had to pick a side of either to go on the skiers side or the ski lodges side, i would chose the lodges. As long as the ski lodge has singed wavier forms of the men that died i really see no one to blame in this accident. The skiers should take the right precautions, however maybe there should be some sort of device that when submerged by snow it sends a distress signal.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/20/avalanche-killed-experienced-backcountry-skiers/?hpt=hp_bn1

Tuesday, January 2012