SkiSickness

Yesterday my group, 5 total, was involved in a slide near the summit of Mt. Snoqualmie.

We set out from the car at 6am intending to get one or two runs and return to the city by noon. Trail breaking was very slow and thigh deep in places. We noted a few isolated instabilities on steep slopes at lower elevations in the woods, but higher did not note any significant signs such as cracking, collapsing, or other recent slides. The slide occurred as three of our group was crossing an open area between trees. The slide was an 18'' - 24'' deep slab which broke appx. 30' above the group, propagating 60' wide. The slab was very soft and completely silent. The slide occurred around 9am.

The other group member, D, was with me, we switched to search mode and began descending behind the slide. We found our first group member about 200' down with his leg wedged in the fork of a 2' diameter tree, his leg obviously broken. D stayed with victim one and I descended lower, finding our other two members also on top of the snow another 200' lower. One had also stopped against a tree and was unhurt. One was sitting upright in the snow without the use of either leg. The slide continued almost 1000' vertical feet farther, coming to a stop on the large, timbered bench above the waterfalls of the Phantom.

The group member who was caught but uninjured is an EMT. After checking the lower victim, he took my skis to ascend to the other victim and assessed his condition. We called 911 and S&R was put in motion. In the meantime we took care of the injured members and waited. S&R arrived around 4pm (?) and executed the evacuation, getting the victims down around 700pm and 815pm.

The danger was forecast by NWAC as considerable to high where we were traveling. Alpental did not open at all due to continued control work, and I-90 closed in both directions for WDOT avalanche control. We could have safely skied excellent snow in the woods, but took too much risk by ascending into the more wind-loaded, less-managable upper slopes above 5,500'. We also have no excuse for having three people caught at once - we should have managed our travel much better.

R's and D's seasons are over, but its a small price to pay. Here's to wishing them a speedy recovery.

So glad you're OK Drew. $ texted me when he heard you were involved and I was pretty freaked for a minute or two.

Very glad everyone made it home. Thanks for sharing! Best wishes for a complete recovery - late July turns might not be out of the question?

Wow. Crazy guys. I'm glad to hear those involved will heal. I wish RS and D the best of luck!

Goddamn, just when you get back from Chamonix and you think you won't get mangled/buried/brutalized on every turn.

Stay strong, maybe you should look into that pension in Hawaii after all.

Damn, that area of Mt Snoqualmie has made me think many many times and there have been days when I stopped in the trees and days when I continued to the top questionably. I commend you for your self-critical assessment. That open cross-loaded terrain with those well-spaced trees is pretty scary. I'm glad you're all right and glad the outcome wasn't worse. I hope those guys heal real well.

ps Sick shot of Shot 8 and thanks for posting, homeslice. I <3 Shot 8.

Thanks for posting this. Reports like these help the learning process for those of us that may be in similar situations. I'm glad all survived and hope R & D recover VERY quickly. There's still 100+ days left in the season.

I just read that a car got thwacked on I-90 the same day! All were fine, thankfully.

Great analysis and spot on with our pushing too high. Our communication was pretty poor, largely because we were a group that hadn't skied together before. Should have made things much clearer from the start. And 100% agree that there's no excuse for 3 of us being caught -- I underestimated the potential for propagation in that last stretch and should have made my intentions to spread out more clear, so D might have at least stayed out of harm's way. Your spacing was much better and thankfully put you and D-2 in a position to get to us quickly.

Stupid and lucky.