Journal
Sheep Creek Avalanche near Loveland Pass, CO (Dale Atkins)
A big avalanche accident happened on April 20 near Loveland Pass. The photo above, made by my friend Dale Atkins, an avalanche expert, shows the results of this humongous slide. Dale discusses avalanche accidents in my book Colorado 14er Disasters. This one was triggered by a group of 6 backcountry skiers and snowboarders, 5 of whom were killed. One survived after being buried for 4 hours, trapped in the cement-like debris with only his face and one arm free. He would have been buried even longer except that some highway workers saw the results of the slide and initiated the events that eventually lead to his rescue.
This was the deadliest avalanche in Colorado in 50 years. But even more notorious, this group was perhaps the most well prepared of any who venture into the backcountry to avoid or at least survive an avalanche. But they failed spectacularly. What happened?
Consider their preparation: They were part of a large organized group who met at the Loveland Ski Area parking lot to promote backcountry avalanche awareness. The group of 6 broke off to do a short downhill run, presumably to check out the snow conditions as well. Here are the facts:
- The group read and discussed the snow conditions report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC). It described a “deep, persistant slab,” meaning that there was a widespread weak layer of snow well below the upper consolidated layers. These weak layers are what make Colorado avalanches so dangerously unpredictable. Unless you know about them by studying the current snowpack and the CAIC reports, they are invisible. This group knew about the layer and decided to head toward what they thought would be a safer slope.
- When they got to the lower end of the Sheep Creek drainage, they spread out 50 feet apart to climb up the snow near the trees. This is exactly what they should have done in terrain that could avalanche, we did this all the time. The idea is that if an avalanche comes down it won’t catch everyone and there will be someone to dig up those who get caught.
- They were all wearing avalanche beacons, radio transceivers that allow you to be found if you are buried. Also, two were wearing avalungs and two were wearing avalanche airbags. The avalung is worn next to the body and helps you breath if buried in snow. The airbags help you ride on top of a slide. These are newer devices that help you survive if caught and are not very common. In other words, these guys were prepared for the worst.
- When the group triggered the avalanche, they were apparently in the runout zone, the relatively flat area below the gully. They heard a whumpf of the weak layer settling which caused a crack to run all the way to the top of the gulley. Minutes later the massive snowslide followed. Of particular note is that they were not on the steep slope but rather the flat area that itself could not avalanche. This is well known to be a danger zone, though the uneducated may feel safe here. Because the group was spread out, they apparently knew the danger.
They did everything “right” yet 5 are dead. As Dale Atkins has said many times, don’t let your equipment and training change affect your decision to go out on a risky slope. If the slope is dangerous, nothing you know or wear will change that. It’s best just to avoid the slope, come back on another day.
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Saturday was the first spring-like weekend day around here in a while and the hiking trails around Boulder were overwhelmed by people, far too many for me. I wasn’t into doing any backcountry skiing on such a nice day and the snow line is still pretty low, so I wanted to hike around the foothills where it wouldn’t be muddy but get away from the masses. I hadn’t been down to Green Mountain, which is located on the western edge of Lakewood, for a long time and so decided to visit.
This is where we used to teach map and compass navigation to students in the Colorado Mountain Club mountaineering school. That was many years ago and wow have things changed since then. There are nice, signed and maintained trails all over the mountain, plus several new parking lots. Though there were always trails everywhere, they were rustic with no signage. It’s kind of cool that Jefferson County has taken an active role in managing this park. It’s a large area too, I did a 7.5 mile circuit shown by my GPS track below right.
Unfortunately, it is located just east of the 8-lane C-470, a commercial race track and a dirt bike track. These three combine to make it impossible to escape engine noise which is audible in almost every area of Green Mountain. Oh well, not everywhere can be like Boulder open space…:-)
Still, if I lived in the area I would be very grateful for this park. Any green space is good, especially near urban centers. In 2006 I visited Taipei on a business trip, a huge city with a massive population. It took at least an hour to taxi from the airport to my hotel through nothing but buildings, concrete and asphalt. I was pleasantly surprised to find a mountain park near my hotel, a tropical forest-covered hill surrounded by skyscrapers. It was a great escape from the crowds and artificial environment, if only for a little while.
I have to say that a big issue that needs to be dealt with in open space are careless users. It is far too easy for urban parks and open space areas to become trashed out and dangerous places. In my opinion, only active and aggressive management can prevent them from becoming a tragedy of the commons. It only takes a very few bad actors, who will always be around, to begin the trashing cycle. Without money, volunteers and rangers these urban interface parks become undesirable or even unusable.
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I was in Oregon last week during the last major snowfall here. It was 70 degrees under cloudless blue skies. It was one of those rare occasions that the weather was better in Portland than it was here. While there I heard several news stories about Dustin Self, the guy who disappeared in the south central Oregon wilderness last month. The stories were about alleged sightings of Dustin around Oregon and that they would not continue to look for him until conditions “improved.” They’re waiting for the snow to melt.
Posted in Journal by Mark with comments disabled.
[…] Blevins wrote an interesting article about the Sheep Creek avalanche a couple of weeks ago near Loveland Pass. I’ve known Jason for several years, he’s […]