Category: Respect the snow

Reminder

Posted by Brittany – February 13, 2010

Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of Kellen Sams, 26, of Manitou Springs, who died in an avalanche near Ridgeway on Thursday. Details of the incident can be found on the CAIC report, and from a post from Kellen’s father.

Having been near that area recently, skiing at Red Mountain Pass, an avalanche in that area doesn’t surprise us given the shallow and hallow snowpack we found there. Still, no one ever wishes for someone else to get caught or harmed in an avalanche of any sort. We view this tragic even as horrible news and our hearts go out to everyone involved.

At the same time, we at 14erskiers also consider this a warning and a reminder. Skiing in the backcountry has it’s consequences, and it’s important for every backcountry skier safe travel techniques and choose appropriate lines as they pass through avalanche terrain. It’s unfortunate that the death of a fellow backcountry skier evokes these reminders. But, please, everyone, remember to be safe out there :)

Plethora of avalanches

Posted by Brittany – December 30, 2008

Avalanches have been a hot topic this month. I can’t stop thinking about them. It’s not because I’m obsessed with avalanches or something. It’s because avalanches have been all over. The news on television, newspapers, the Internet, Internet forums… avalanches are all over the country and this year there seem to be more avalanches than ever.

The bad vibes started with two in-bounds avalanches: one in Vail which buried a skier, but he was recovered 2) The other was an in-bounds avalanche at Snowbird which buried and killed a skier. This was followed by another in-bounds avalanche and death at Squaw, then yet another in Jackson Hole. People expect to hear about avalanche deaths here and there in the winter. But, these deaths usually happen somewhere in the backcountry- or even on a road. Since when did post-controlled, open-to-the-public ski slopes at ski areas become such an avalanche risk? In-bounds avalanches like this have happened on rare occasion, but to have FOUR of them happen in a season, let alone in the same month, is completely insane. This is a sign about the season’s snowpack. It’s shaping up to be very unstable, not only for Colorado, but for much of the nation.

In-bounds avalanches like this are making the Crested Butte ski patrol work even harder. They are bombing like mad. They are ski cutting, bringing out the bootpackers, and doing what they can to open up the terrain that Crested Butte has come to be known for. But, with avalanches at ski areas all over the country, Crested Butte doesn’t want to become one of the growing statistics. So, closed these slopes remain, and I fear they will remain closed for a long time this season. Still, I do commend the CB ski patrol for their hard work, trying to keep our slopes safe to ski. Hopefully, we will ski these slopes soon.

Jackson Hole was hit another blow yesterday when the ski patrol was doing control work. They triggered a gigantic slide which buried some ski patrollers and went through the wall of the ski lodge below. The snow went through the lodge, forcing tables and chairs to go through the windows on the other side. Jackson Hole has announced that all patrollers and workers in the area are fine, thankfully. Here’s some pictures of the scene below:

Taken from a web cam:

Inside the ski lodge

Above pictures obtained from posters on TGR Forums. Please also check out jhunderground.com for more information.

I won’t begin to talk about all of the avalanches and resulting deaths that have happened in the backcountry. There’s already too many for me to mention here. But I do want to focus on one avalanche that has caught my attention because it’s been all over the media this past week- an avalanche on Gravel Mountain caused by 3 snowmobilers, resulting in two of them dying. These snowmobilers were “high-marking’ (a practice that is known to cause avalanches) on a slope that is known to avalanche every year. They were doing this when the CAIC reported the avalanche danger to be high (likely to avalanche naturally) and considerable (human-triggered avalanches likely). The news article says the snomobilers were “well-versed in snow conditions”, yet none of them had beacons, shovels or probes. Following this, a few days later, the TV media interviewed the wife of Kopp (one of the victims), she said something to the effect of, “It was just an accident. There is no way something like this could have been prevented.” Is this really how the public feels? What part of high-marking on a known slide path on a high avy danger day without avy gear makes it sound like an accident?

With this last scenario in mind, it has become evident to me that the general public has no clue about avalanches and avalanche danger. Unfortunately, many of the general public can find themselves in avy terrain, be it skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, climbing, or snowmobiling. As more and more people venture this way, we need to educate them. We at least need to educate them not to be out in avy terrain on days rated High or Considerable. But, I don’t know how to educate these people.

One company, Rocky Mountain Sherpas, is doing their part in trying to bring avalanche education to the public by releasing a movie called The Fine Line. You can view the teaser here: http://rockymountainsherpas.com/ftp/FineLine_Teaser1.mov
Frank and I have both seen most of this movie during the CBAC avalanche awareness presentation earlier this month and the movie is quite good.

With this plethora of avalanches this month, I’m officially “avalanched-out”. I want people to be safe. I want the snow to stabilize. I want to be able to enjoy the backcountry. And I want to enjoy my playground at the ski area. Here’s to hoping the New Year will bring us better luck!

Wave of Storms

Posted by Brittany – December 20, 2008

NOAA reported that the Colorado mountains is about to enter a “wave of storms”…. as if we haven’t already been in a wave of storms already! The first storm started last Friday and the snow has not stopped! There is snow in the forecast everyday for the next week!

Digging out my car on a daily basis has become a chore, but one that I enjoy. I love the snow. I even love the hassles it brings.

These storms have not come quietly, though. Most of them have come with excessive amounts of winds. White-outs have not been uncommon. Here is a view of one as seen from our window.
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Can you see the person trying to brave the storm?
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Here is a picture from our window where it is not a white-out for reference. Here, it’s just snowing.
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All of this storm activity has led to high avalanche danger in the backcountry. There have been many natural slides and mother nature is simply taking her course. Unfortunately, a Crested Butte local, Mike Bowen, headed out for the Climax chutes on his own on Wednesday and has not been seen since. While we all mourn the loss of fellow skiers, we must also remember that backcountry skiing is not always appropriate. When avy danger is high or when avalanche warnings are in effect, backcountry travel is simply not recommended. Even sticking to low angle terrain in the CB backcountry can be difficult because usually you have to pass through areas where natural slides could start above you in order to access the low angle terrain. So, please remember, be safe in he backcountry! When the storms end, there will be plenty of snow for all of us to enjoy!

Avy Savvy: Shoveling Techniques

Posted by Brittany – December 8, 2008

On Tuesday, Frank and I attended the CBAC avy awareness clinic and the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. This year’s event was so popular that tickets were sold out and the center was packed jammed-full of locals wanting to do their part for avy awareness. As a fundraising event for CBAC, this was a full success.

Throughout the night, various folks involved with CBAC made presentations on avy safety, inter-mixed with the snowing of an avalanche awareness movie. Most presentations were standard for avy clinics- not really any new information, but always good information to remember. But then, a presentation was made on shoveling techniques.

All backcountry enthusiasts know how important beacon practice is. We know how knowing how to use a beacon effectively can be the difference between life and death should a friend get buried in an avalanche. We all know that probing to find the person is also important in pinpointing the buried person’s exact location, so you don’t have to shovel as much snow.

But, no one really focuses on actually getting that person out of the snow once you find them. Yet, as Tuesday night’s presenter pointed out: If you know how to use your beacon, you will likely spend more time shoveling the person out than actually finding the person.

The presenter gave a lot of good details about shoveling. Basically, the two major things I got were this:
1) You should not shovel directly above the person, you should shovel downhill of them. This will help prevent the snow from caving in on top, making ultimately more snow to shovel away.
2) You should begin shoveling one and a half times downhill from how deep the person is buried. For instance, if the person buried a meter deep, you should shovel 1.5 meters downhill.

There is more to be learned about shoveling techniques. The presenter mentioned that he got his information from the BCA website. I checked it out and found two useful articles:

Check it out. You may learn something useful :)

TR: Baldy via Washington Gulch (11/30/2008)

Posted by Brittany – December 7, 2008

The day started like this…..

It was snowing. It had been snowing for a few days straight at that point. Yet, the snow yielded little accumulation in Crested Butte and on the resort. The resort was open, but only 2 chairs were running with 3 runs open. And those runs were flat. The wind was howling, and had been howling for at least 2 days, making skiing at the resort sheer misery. We knew just a few miles away it was probably snowing feet of snow. So, we planned on a backcountry mission.

Just before Frank and I were about to leave from our condo, I got a call from Sydney. “Uh, do you guys have an extra spare tire for your trailer?” Sydney and Rob started out their day with a flat tire from their snowmobile trailer, so we went to save them. We had one that was a perfect fit.

As Frank and I were loading our trailer onto his truck, the maintainence guy came out to have a little chat with us. “Yeah, so… you guys might not be able to keep your trailer here anymore?” As Frank had words with the man, I hooked the trailer to the truck… distracted by their conversation. Into the truck Frank and I both go. He asks, “Everything good with the trailer?” “Yep,” I replied. Boy was I wrong. As we turned onto the snow and ice covered Gothic Rd, we heard a crash from behind. The trailer had fallen off the truck. Frank and I worked to fix it. Thankfully, the spare tire that we were bringing to Rob and Sydney had played “bumper cars”- it had protected the trailer from damaging Frank’s truck.

So, off we go to meet Sydney and Rob with the God-send spare tire. The expended tire from their trailer was in pieces. But, the new tire went on smoothly.

Our plan was to access terrain Schofield Pass. But, like I said, it had been snowing for a few days straight. We were half expecting Gothic Rd to be close for the season, just past it’s usual winter closure near Snodgrass. But no, the road was open! So, up the road we went. As we progressed, the snow on the road became deeper and deeper. But, it was not the depth that worried us. We knew about the hill. The hill just past the town of Gothic. The steep hill. The one hill that could cause a potential threat to our plan. When we got to the bottom of the hill, Rob and Sydney pulled up in their truck just beside us. Frank said, “Well, give me a little room. I’m going to go for it.”

So, we went for it. Frank tried to “gun” it as much as he could. We were doing it! We were making it up the hill! Then all the sudden the engine slowed. The truck was struggling pulling the heavy trailer behind it. We were so near the top…. “Shift!” I said. Frank shifted. But, it was to no avail. The tires were skidding on the ice beneath the snow.

Frank put on the brakes. For a second we stopped. And then my heart sank. We both felt it. Even though the brakes were locked, we were sliding backwards. We were sliding backwards with a trailer on the back. Visions happened. I had visions of us going backwards off the road, getting so stuck in the snow that the truck and trailer would be lost for the season. I envisioned the trailer jackknifing, crushing Frank’s truck.

We slid for a ways until the trailer jackknifed, preventing us from sliding further down the hill. Sydney and Rob could do nothing but watch, jaws dropped. Frank and I jumped out of the truck. Sydney and Rob came running. I scurried to release the trailer from the truck. Amazingly, the trailer had once again been saved from damage. If the trailer had twisted an inch more to the side, Frank’s truck would have been crushed. But, we were saved by an inch.

We spent at least a half an hour digging, pushing, and pulling the trailer to get it out of the snowbank were it was stuck. But, we got it.

Have we had enough yet? No. On to option #2. Washington Gulch.

We unloaded our snowmobiles at the winter closure on Washington Gulch. The snowmobile up Washington Gulch was easy at first. But then it got more difficult. Snowmobiles began to get stuck, and we’d expend a lot of energy digging, pushing, and pulling our sleds out of the snow. Then, our options ended. Waves of snow covered the road in the form of drifts and we knew trying to make our way through it would require endless digging. So, we parked the sleds and broke out the skins.

At this point, disappointment set in. We didn’t get as far as we had wanted with the sleds. So, accessing the terrain that was in our original plan was no longer possible. Plan B was to scope out Mt. Baldy.

The road provided easy skinning and we followed it for a ways. But, we remained cognizant of the avalanche paths crossing the road. The wind was howling, visibility was low, and we knew it was possible for some snow to come tumbling down above us. We crossed each avy path one person at a time.

Eventually, we found the general area where we wanted to make our way up the mountain. At that point, we had just come around a “corner” which had provided some protection from the wind. But, now we found ourselves without trees or rock to shield us. And the wind was howling.

Once again, our plan changed. We were hoping to ski a west-facing aspect of Mt. Baldy. But the wind was making that task both unsafe and miserable. So, enter Plan C. We decided to climb the scoured ridge of Baldy and then descend on the SE side, back down to the road where we had skinned.

This picture sums up our ridge experience.
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Eventually, the ridge turned to rock and we stashed our skis on our packs. After being blown to the ground several times, we finally found a place to traverse across to access some better snow.

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We traversed our way across to an avy path that seemed to have good enough snow to ski. But, the snow was unhappy. A slick bedsurface topped with windloaded snow made for a very unstable snowpack. The snow was cracking all around us. So, we used the terrain to our advantage, hugging a ridge for safety to the skiers right of the avy path.

As we descended a bit, we saw that a natural slide had released. You can barely see it in this picture.
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While the crown was less than a foot high and only about 10 yards wide, the slide continued for about 1000 vertical feet- enough to cause some significant damage to a person caught, or some one below. Even scarier, was the fact that we had crossed under this avy path on the road just an hour or so before.

A picture of the slide crossing the road.
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Because we were choosing our route based on safety rather than powdery-goodness, the skiing wasn’t very enjoyable. However, for the last few hundred feet, we were able to open it up and enjoy some of the freshly fallen snow.
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We returned to our cars just before dark. We were all thankful to be back after such and arduous day. Sydney and Rob finally had a first hand experience of the situations that Frank and I sometimes endure for a day of skiing. Lesson learned: If more than one thing goes wrong at the beginning of the day, maybe it’s time to head for the resort :)

On another note- to all who are reading this who may access backcountry skiing near Crested Butte – be wary of the snowpack out there. While I do think you can find areas of stability, you’re just as likely to find areas of instability. Be aware of the variability of the snowpack out there due to the transport of wind from the snow!

Avy Savvy

Posted by Brittany – November 22, 2008

Here in Crested Butte, it has not snowed for a week an a half. This lack of snow fall not only dampers desires for skiing, but it slowly wreaks havoc on the snow pack. As many backcountry enthusiasts know, early season snowfall often dictates the behavior of the snow pack for the rest of the season. A prolonged period of cold temperatures and no new snow causes the depth hoar sugar-snow that threatens the stability of the base layers of our snow pack. This season’s snow pack is slowly taking the form of the classic unstable Colorado snow.

Early season backcountry skiers can also be victims of this unstable snow pack. It’s easy for early season skiers to forget their avy savvy when faced with some of the first precious powder turns of the year. But, it’s always important to have your avy sense about you as a backcountry enthusiast.

This time of year it’s always a good idea for backcountry enthusiasts to practice their avy savvy. You don’t even need to be on snow to be thinking in “avy mode”. Here’s some ideas to practice your avy sense:

1) Beacon practice - Grab a bunch of your friends who have beacons. Borrow beacons if you can. If there’s snow around, bury them in some snow (this could be while on a backcountry outing or just in a random snowfield, like in a park). If there is no snow, go to a big house or building and try to hide the beacons in random places. Begin by hiding one beacon. Then practice multi-beacon searches if possible.

2) Read books – There’s tons of books about avalanches out there. There’s books of how avalanches happen, about avalanche safety, and even some that purely report avalanche accidents. It doesn’t matter what you read. All will get you thinking in avy mode again. If you don’t feel like buying a new book, see if you can borrow one from a friend, from the library, or even re-read a book you haven’t read in a few years.

3) Utilize online resources – We all know there’s a ton of information on the internet. Go to your local avalanche information cite and read everything they have. Visit other state’s cites. A great national cite is avalanche.org.

4) Attend local avalanche awareness talks – Look for information on these on your local avalanche cites, newspapers, backcountry gear stores, and the radio.

5) Sign up for an avalanche course – Even if you have taken an avalanche course already, it can be helpful to take another avy course. If you have already taken Avy I, try Avy II. Many institutions also offer avy “Refresher” courses- which are shorter, but packed with valuable information. You may also consider taking an avy course from a different institution, because many institutions have different philosophies on how to handle avy courses- which means you may learn different information from one institution to another.

6) Re-acquaint yourself with avy terminology- It’s easy to forget what terms like “Moderate” and “Considerable” on the avy danger scale mean. Look at it again. Also, check out this Avalanche Encyclopedia

All of these things are steps that you can take to help re-tune your avy sense. Of course, none of these replace actual on-snow experience. However, they will help prepare you for the upcoming snow season!

Alaska Part 1: Alyeska

Posted by Brittany – April 1, 2008

Originally posted on my Thrillhead Blog

I’ve decided that I have far to many experiences and photos to share from Alaska in one big blog post. So, I will post my Alaskan experiences in “Chapters”. This chapter is about the ski area, Alyeska.

After spending a leisurely Easter morning in Anchorage, we headed up the Seward Highway to the cabin we rented in Girdwood. After settling in, I decided to hit the ski area, Alyeska.

It was 2 pm when I finally got around to skiing. But, the benefit to Alyeska is they actually use the daylight. The ski area didn’t start shutting down until 5 or 5:30 on that Sunday. This time of year, on Thurs-Saturday, many runs stay open quite a bit later.

I had no idea where I was going. I just headed up the lifts that took me as close to the top as possible. When I got off the lift, I headed to the first gate I could find that was on my right, ‘cuz the map said those were all double blacks. This is what I found.

There were hardly any tracks. I was pretty impressed with the snow quality and the steepness of the run. I didn’t see a single soul the whole time though and I found myself wondering if I was going someplace where I shouldn’t be. But, the gate was open, right? I found myself down by the tram and went up for more. A run later, I found myself running into Kellie’s friend Brooke, whom I’d contacted via email prior to the trip. She introduced me to Ben- a former Alyeska ski patroller who was now going to grad school in Idaho, but was visiting for his spring break. And the two of them kept me entertained during most of my time at Alyeska.

I found out that what I had skied on the first run was called “The Knuckles”.

The clouds began to lift as the day progressed and this is what unveiled

The lodge and Penguin ridge behind:

Top of Christmas chute:

Alpenglow is just one of those inspiring peaks that should be skied:

The next day….

Me with Ragged Top behind:

Brooke skiing the Knuckels

Looking back up at The North Face. From left to right: the Monies, New Year’s Chute, Christmas chute, and the Knuckles.

Tram

Looking back down at the hotel:

Some of the trees struggle for life, battling the constant avalanches :)

A couple of days later I found myself meeting Robin, visiting from Crested Butte, on my very first run of the day. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with these rippin’ chicks: Ashley, Robin, Lucy.

Looking back up New Year’s Chute:

Hike to the Monies:

The ski patrol spent a better part of the morning and early afternoon getting the Headwall ready.

When it finally did open, around 2 pm, we were among the first in line (behind ski patrol) to boot right up the face.


Notice the rather large fracture crowns we had to boot through. The boot pack was… interesting. Pretty burly for inbounds actually, and made for a good conversation at the bar apres ski.

Some people headed further over on the headwall. We stayed a bit closer for some high quality pow.

Is this the Chilkoot trail or Alyeska? I’m confused.

Alyeska has a lot to offer, if all is open.

And the scenery is stunning, with the Turnagain Arm in the background.

Another musing over Alpenglow

My last day at the resort was one of the days they were hosting Telepalooza, an Extreme World Tele Comp. They hosted it on some terrain that is usually closed, referred to as “The Shadows”.

Closer views of comp terrain

Ben (and maybe a familiar face for some in the background).

We skied until late that evening, nearing 6 pm. My last run down I took one last parting Alpenglow shot.

Update on friends who did 24 hours of Sunlight for Gavin

Posted by Brittany – March 5, 2008

Previously posted on my Thrillhead Blog

Some of you may remember me posting a blog entry about my friends who were doing the 24 hours of Sunlight to raise money for Gavin Ozanne, who was born one month after his father perished in an avalanche accident near Aspen.
Well, here’s an update from Jason himself:

First of all we’d like to say thank you to everyone who supported us for this race and gave so generously to the Simon Ozanne Memorial Fund. The amount of support everyone gave for this cause was truly incredible, and we cannot thank you enough. Its amazing to have so many great friends and heartwarming to see everyone come together to support this cause. We don’t have the exact number yet but so far it looks to be over $9000 that was raised for the fund and Gavin Ozanne’s future. The total donation will be made in Alexis Dodin’s name (the other victim of the avalanche) – we know he would have been right there with us if he could.

Ok so on to the race – It was amazing, and we manged to blow away our goal by completing 28 laps (see the note at the bottom for people who pledged by the lap). The weather was perfect (only got down to 20 at night, 2 years ago they said it was negative 15 at night), the event was really well run, and somehow we did pretty well. We actually had plenty of time to get in one more, but we decided not to gouge those of you who pledged by the lap anymore and to take the last lap all together. So we let Bloomy rest for a good 30 minutes and headed out at a “casual” pace, a.k.a Julien’s pace, for a victory lap. The third place team for the 5 person teams actually only completed 2 more laps than us, and if we had about 15 more minutes we could have scrubbed the team lap, got 2 in and sent the last one up just before the deadline (as long as you started your lap before the deadline you were allowed to complete it), so we weren’t too far off from turning our participation medal into the coveted semi-precious bronze type. All in all it was great and actually a lot of fun.

Info on our lap times (and other teams) is available through the link below (we are team 62 – Atleast they’re trying, I think – we had what we thought was a much better name but opted for the PC version, which we will never happen again). Check out the soloist times too – those guys are incredible: The winner set a new world record by completing 34 laps by himself – insane – and the female soloist champion almost completed as many as our whole team.
[url]http://www.grannygear.com/realtime/public/sl_team.php?team_id=62&action=display[/url]

Again we’d really like to thank everyone for contributing to this fund (and to Scooter’s parents for hooking us up with the winnebago – it was a lifesaver – sorry about the muffler, I’m pretty sure we can blame the winnebago’s decision to turn its muffler into a sparkbar on Bloomy’s new mustache).

-Jason (Country), Angela (Midj), Jon (Bloomy/Inigo), Jordan, Julien and of course Gavin and Jenn Ozanne.

Great job folks!!! Here’s some pictures the team has shared:

Country getting the race off to a great start:

Go team! Julien, Angela, Jordan, Bloomy and Country

Gavin, the little one who all this is for!

If you would like information on how to contribute to the Simon Ozanne Memorial Fund, please contact me (my contact information is on the right of this page) and I will connect you with Jason.

Friends doing 24 hrs of Sunlight for a good cause

Posted by Brittany – January 17, 2008

Previously posted on my Thrillhead Blog

I recently received this email from my friend Jason. I wanted to pass on the information, so I’ thought I’d post it on my blog.

Four close friends and I are entering in the 24 hours of sunlight ski and climbing race and are using the race as an excuse to raise money for Gavin Ozanne. As many of you know we lost two very close friends, Simon Ozanne and Alexis Dodin, in an avalanche last year while Simon, Alexis, and I were backcountry skiing outside of Aspen last year. As tragic as the accident was by itself, Simon’s wife was 8 months pregnant at the time. Simon’s wife Jenn gave birth a month later to a healthy baby boy, Gavin Ozanne. A college fund was set up for Gavin by some of his closest friends and we would like to raise as much as we can for Gavin’s future through this race.

The event occurs at sunlight ski area outside of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on Feb 23-4, and in a nutshell is a relay race to see how many times your team members can climb to the top of the mountain (under you own power) and ski down in 24 hours (its about 1600 vertical feet up per lap). Here’s a link to their website if you want to check it out – http://www.24hoursofsunlight.com/
Our team consists of Jason Luck, Angela Kontas, Julien Du Castel, John Bloomfield, and Jordan Hixson.

Some of you may remember the tragedy that happened last year on Sunshine Peak (Mt. Shimer) last March. This blog entry is not the time or place to discuss details, as the even is now long past. But, some information can be found here:
http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=643″
http://aspentimes.com/article/20070314/NEWS/103140048

To bring it to heart, here’s some pictures.

Poor baby Gavin who will never know his father.

Alexis

Simon

If you would like any more information, or would like to contribute to The Simon Ozanne Memorial Fund, please contact me via e-mail or personal message, listed on the right side of this page.

The avalanche was a tragedy. But we can transform it into a blessing. Even though poor Jenn had to bear the burden of her own husband’s death, she thankfully was blessed with a beautiful baby boy. Let’s make sure his future is bright.

Early Season Syndrome

Posted by Brittany – December 19, 2007

Previously posted on my Thrillhead Blog

Every year there’s at least a handful of people who die in avalanches here in Colorado. Some of them are just names… another tragedy. But others are a little closer to home…. For instance, last season two people were killed in an avalanche near Aspen. I didn’t know those two people, but I did know the third person that was with them. Two seasons ago a man died in an early season avalanche on Berthoud Pass. I didn’t know him either, but I did know a few people who were there at the same time and were involved in the rescue attempt.

This year Colorado backcountry skiers were once again reminded of the potential danger of the snow when we heard about Luke Oldenburg, a 31-yr old who was buried in an avalanche on Cameron Pass. We all rejoiced when we heard that he survived the burial and that his friends rescued him. But the rescue was not enough. Luke died of trauma a few days later.

I didn’t know Luke, but there’s a lot I can understand about him. He was an experienced backcountry skier. The news reported that, like me, he’s skied 30 fourteeners. When I heard this information, Luke’s death kind of hit home. I can put myself in his shoes and understand what must have been running through his mind that day… It was early December, and avid skiers like myself just wanted to get out and find some good snow. Luke was a victim of what I call “Early Season Syndrome”. Unfortunately, I had to hear about his death before I was reminded about this potentially deadly syndrome.

What is Early Season Syndrome? It’s similar to what many term summit fever. Except, in this case, the person may not even be attempting a summit. Early Season Syndrome is driven by a backcountry skier’s desire to get out and ski after not being able to satisfy the ski-craving after a long hot summer. This is similar to summit fever being driven by a climber’s desire just to get to the top of a peak. As with summit fever, Early Season Syndrome can cloud a person’s judgement: forgetting to constantly reassess avalanche conditions, risks, and routes can be symptoms of this syndrome. Luke and his friends were all victims of this syndrome as they changed plans that day. They started climbing something they originally planned on avoiding. They were going to avoid it because they knew the potential for avalanches there was high. Yet, when they got there, temptation took over along with Early Season Syndrome, and poor decisions were made. Sometimes people get lucky and nothing happens when poor decisions are made, but this was not the case for Luke and his friends.

I speak of this Early Season Syndrome because I have noticed it’s symptoms in both myself and in other people I ski with. Most skiers are victims of it from time to time. When Frank and I attempted Torrey’s in late November (see Nov. 28th blog entry) we were both under the influence of Early Season Syndrome, but we realized it early, and adjusted our decisions quickly. Unfortunately, most skiers forget about Early Season Syndrome until something tragic happens, like the death of a fellow skier. However, I’m a firm believer that if you can recognize the syndrome, you can help reduce the syndrome’s affects at clouding your judgement.

So, backcountry skiers: Don’t forget when you get out into the backcountry to take a step back. Take a breath. Reassess your situation from time to time. Adjust your routes accordingly. Don’t be pressured by peers and don’t let the desire for snow or a summit affect your judgement. Your life may depend on it.

Other Resources about the Avalanche on Cameron Pass:
CAIC report
Denver Post Article