Recovery of skiers killed in The most dangerous avalanche in the United States It took nearly 45 years because of what experts say is a cardinal rule for rescuers: Don’t make yourself a victim.
The storm that continued to batter California’s remote Sierra Nevada wilderness on Thursday meant… More avalanches It could have happened in a remote area where authorities said eight people were dead and one person was still missing two days after their group was caught in the deadly avalanche. Six people survived.
Rescuers faced the same potential dangers that claimed the lives of backcountry skiers Professional guidesas they were playing a sport with inherent risks exacerbated by several feet of new snow. Recovery efforts are scheduled to resume on Friday.
From skiers and snowboarders to snowmobilers and mountaineers, backcountry winter travelers rely on Avalanche forecast To help them measure risk. However, conditions change quickly due to the turbulent mountain weather.
To supplement or lack forecasts, experienced skiers and guides will dig a hole in the snow to test its stability. They can also look for less dangerous terrain, such as slopes that are not as steep or protected from known avalanche routes.
Snow is also falling from the Sierra storm system this week AccumulatedThe group of 15 skiers caught in the avalanche Tuesday was on the final day of a multi-day trek heading up the trail.
“It was very necessary for them to leave the backcountry, probably, so that their risks wouldn’t increase,” said Anthony Pavlantos of Utah-based Preval USA, which makes avalanche safety equipment and runs mountain safety programs.
“What’s really hard to say is why were they moving?” You can never start blaming such events because we can all be there.
It is not uncommon for people to venture into the backcountry to ski or snowboard during times of increased danger: a dangerous storm also means plenty of fresh snow that many skiers crave.
Because fatal accidents are rare, risk takers often survive, said Dale Atkins, who has been involved in mountain rescue, avalanche forecasting and research in Colorado for five decades.
“It’s not about not going, it’s about where and when you go,” Atkins said.
But getting out of the backcountry unscathed can create a false sense of security in an endeavor in which luck — or lack thereof — also plays a role, Atkins added.
“It’s really easy to get fooled by snow and avalanches,” he said. “We keep going out even in the worst storms because that’s what we did last time, and then our luck runs out.”
Usually someone’s best hope of surviving after being buried in an avalanche is to extract themselves or be rescued by a comrade. This is because slides often occur in remote areas.
It took rescuers six hours to reach the victims of Tuesday’s avalanche after the first report arrived. By comparison, the chances of survival for someone buried for an hour are only about one in 10, Atkins said.
Surviving skiers in California found three of the victims while they waited for rescue. Authorities did not provide a detailed description of how they located the other victims.
The debris field from a large avalanche like the deadly one in California will extend over a large area, making it difficult to know where someone will end up if they are caught and dragged beneath the surface.
The first thing to look for is clues like a glove or ski pole that could give away the victim’s location, said Anthony Stevens, senior advisor for the search and rescue team in Teton County, Wyoming, home to Grand Teton National Park.
Skiers in guided groups usually carry transceivers, known as avalanche beacons, which send signals of where they are. The devices can also receive other signals, showing the direction and approximate distance to the victim.
If that doesn’t work, rescuers can line up and use long, slender poles to search through the snow in hopes of finding someone, said Ethan Green, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Time is of the essence in the rescue operation, and once someone is found, they must be taken out. The average burial depth is about a meter, or just over 3 feet, Atkins said. Because the snow and ice in an avalanche are so compressed, extracting someone from that depth would require moving at least a ton of material, he said.
People rarely survive being buried for long. Atkins said he knows of two people who survived being buried for 22 and 24 hours respectively after an avalanche in the 1990s in Washington state. A third member of their party did not survive.
He added: “It is unusual for a rescue team to find a person buried alive. But it happens, and this gives us hope.”
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.