EISPIRATEN

still one person missing; also an Avalanche Warning is in effect for Mountain High and Mount Baldy; let's be careful out there

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22847414

Supposedly 1 dead, 1 missing.
http://cbs2.com/local/avalanche.wrightw ... 38207.html

One skiier from Wrightwood (age 22) confirmed dead, did not hear much more.

Rest in peace.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_ ... a_storm_23

Per that article, "An avalanche advisory was issued for the ski area at nearby Mount Baldy, a 10,000-foot peak about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, and the lifts there were closed, Angeles National Forest spokesman Stanton Florea said."

hopefully Mt Baldy keeps running. this storm tonight says 8,000 ft snow levels? crazy.

One of the victims was a coworker of mine. Nice easygoing guy, young (32), liked and respected by all. He was skiing on one of his days off.

A reminder to us all to be careful.

More info...

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_8083083

This was the lead story on the front page of the LA Times today.

I posted this in the let it snow thread, from today:

Crash Blocks Traffic On Mount Baldy Road
TRAFFIC: Plan Your Route
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
A traffic crash on Mount Baldy Road near the tunnel has blocked the roadway, and more than 100 cars will need to be turned around, the California Highway Patrol reports.


This road is the sole access to the Mount Baldy Village area, including the Mount Baldy Ski Area.

We will bring you more details as they become available.

As beautiful as today is, probably also the biggest avi threat ..
Be safe, use good judgement.

Here is a newspaper report about the skiers. Its updated from Alan's post.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 7818.story

Here is an article from the OC Register about the guy who was lost:
http://www.ocregister.com/article/gonza ... later-felt

I'm offline on the weekends and don't have TV, so didn't find out about the Mt. High avalanche and fatalities until late Sunday. I am very cautious after significant new snow but don't think the victims did anything insanely risky, like the news suggests. Don't know details about conditions on Friday but I find the location surprising. If I remember right, the slopes are not that steep and has lots of trees ( which can still be very dangerous if snow is unstable enough ) , there is a nasty terrane trap and I wonder if that was a contributing factor. Just goes to show you that training and experience doesn't make you immortal.

While at Mt. Baldy resort on Saturday it looked like a couple small slab type avalanche with crown height of ~2 ft took place near chair one on Friday.

Would like to see a real avalanche report, not a dumbed down news report. If anyone finds an avalanche report please post or post link.

In reading the news coverage, mostly in the LA Times, I did not get the impression that the victims of the avalanches (plural) were doing anything "insanely risky." Out of bounds skiing was mentioned, of course, but so was the fact that the victims were very experienced.

I make no claim to being an avalanche expert. I did take the SMI Level I Avalanche Safety Course a couple of years ago, which I found to be both extremely useful and quite humbling. I thought the LA Times article I linked yesterday had a tone that was very consistent with the tone of that course. For example:

"In Southern California, having these big dumps of powder are not real common," said Northwest Avalanche Institute expert Paul Baugher, an avalanche-safety instructor and ski patrol director at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort in Washington who often is called to investigate avalanche deaths. "And so there's two things going on here. One is, people are sort of unfamiliar with how dangerous this can be. Even if you're a professional, you don't have that experience of actually seeing these [avalanches] released. On top of that, it's so rare. It's wonderful skiing, and you're drawn to that."

Must apologize...I was not trying to insult the media or people posting links to newspapers etc...they are helpful and have there place. I agree that the LA times story is good, but I find that few news outlets practice the same standards as the Times. Some of the web video from the LA TV news give me that impression.

Hopefully people involved in the incidents/recoveries will put together "Avalanche Incident Reports" I don't expect it from the news media, more like something you can find on avalanche.org. It's like the difference between an article in a scientific journal and a press release. The details of an AIR might help others ( including myself ) when deciding to venturing out-of-bounds or into the backcountry.

I certainly agree that a real avalanche report would be of great interest. I think we'd all like to learn from tragic events like these and more detailed information would really help.

Also, to be fair, I looked at a broader range of media coverage and have to agree that a lot of it was pretty bad. Not that I'm surprised.