Page 1 of 2

Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:21 pm
by boredtoo
Spent a long weekend (3/6 to 3/9) skiing some of the best snow I've ever had at Breck. Great times, but we had an inbounds avalanche from terrain accessed from the Imperial lift traversing to the Whale's Tail area. Fortunately I was far enough away to miss it (but I did hear it), and no one was hurt. First hand account is here:

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/a-hell ... ki-resort/

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:29 pm
by davidski
The whole situation is dire, the breckenridge incident is unusual because it was inbounds. Although Breck opened terrain when neighboring Copper did not and Breck slid immediately. More and more deaths in this avalanche cycle. The Jones pass incident is most discussed but in the last two days three people have died in officially designated roof avalanches, yes that is the actual designation on the Colorado Avalanche Information site, two homeowners and one property management worker, have been buried and died in "roof avalanches"

This is an insane cycle. The employee? freelance photographer? for Powder Addiction snowcat operation died at Jones pass. There is a lot of controversy/questions associated with that. I have skied the Berthoud Pass region right by there, it scares the s*** out of me that so many trees have slid

But just like Sheep creek by Loveland, and I was there that week and NEVER would have gone in lock step where those "experts" chose to go, and like the Tunnel Creek deadly shitshow and now this PA snowcat operation,

WHAT THE f*** is wrong with these EXPERTS?

By the way when I was just at Wolf Creek all talk was about tree wells and deep snow suffocation, everyone had a chilling story (even as we were heading into it, I guess)

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:32 am
by davidski
what is going on in Colorado right now is not epic, its epochal

The sheep creek avalanche was a d3, r3, it buried and killed 5 people

there have been been at least a dozen d4-5 in one week (destructive force, 5 is the highest)

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 4:21 am
by davidski
boredtoo wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:21 pm Spent a long weekend (3/6 to 3/9) skiing some of the best snow I've ever had at Breck. Great times, but we had an inbounds avalanche from terrain accessed from the Imperial lift traversing to the Whale's Tail area. Fortunately I was far enough away to miss it (but I did hear it), and no one was hurt. First hand account is here:

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/a-hell ... ki-resort/
Sorry for ranting, I bet it was awesome. I saw pictures from A-basin once people were able to get there after CDOT finished their work and it looked amazing

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:20 am
by boredtoo
Rant away.. I agree with everything you said. It was a great time for me, but I saw many people in parts of the resort where I did not think it was safe for them to be. I personally helped dig out 3 people who got stuck in deep snow.

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:01 am
by davidski
I went upside down at Purgatory and breathed in a mouthful, it was a sense of complete fear and panic for the several seconds before I cleared my face --- in the course of getting out I was left in about a four foot crater and out of curiosity I checked to see how far I could push my ski into the snow beneath me -- all 180 cm with little effort.

At Wolf I tag along with some locals which allowed me to get deep into untracked trees -- at one point I felt I was coming in to hot toward a tree well so I put on the brakes and when I slowed I gently settled into the snow to above my waist fortunately terrain was steep so it was easy to get moving again

As far as Avelanches and the scale of these recent ones -- this is a massive brand new slide path on peak 1 a new andmark visible from frisco .. people are deciding what they should name it
Image

Insane arial view of hwy 550 at redmountain pass 60 feet of snow on large stretches of the road


Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:32 pm
by boredtoo
My driver to the airport pointed out that Frisco avalanche on my way out of Breck. It was huge.

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:36 am
by wilks
I was in summit county 2/22 - 2/25 and it was starting to stack up. Insane what has happened in the past couple weeks.

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:06 pm
by spydeeTJB

Re: Avalanche in Breckenridge - 3/8/19

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:32 pm
by dj
Amazing!

I'm glad we left on Feb 28 and drove back to Denver a day early.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk