small avalanche mantua 2/28/10

[cabinman]

a small avalanche was set off behind willard peak yesterday afternoon (about 3 pm) as we were heading back towards our trucks. It was about 15" thick by 100' wide and it slid about 70'. One buddy got caught in it and was buried up to his shoulders and the snowmobile was rolled on its side and buried over half way. Very lucky he was able to get himself out and took 6 of us 15 min. to dig the sled out with our shovels. He didn't have a beacon but will have one by next weekend. It could of been avoided because he was following another snowmobile up the hill and was only 15' behind. 4 others waited at the bottom of the hill and witnessed everything. The hill was only bout 80 ft high, but the point is it could of been avoided...he was shaken up a little bit and realized his mistake. I tried to upload some pics but it says i'm over my limits...if someone can post them for me let me know where to send them.
I'll report this to UAC this morn.

Thx and be careful out there

Johnnie B.

 

[jcrjet]

When you say it could have been avoided, do you mean avoided by waiting and one at a time across the hill? What happened to the first sled and which one set off the avalanche?
I'm just trying to learn more about this stuff.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[cabinman]

one sled on climbing at a time...i was the first one over, while 4 others waited at the bottom off to the side. The one who got caught was trailing only 15 ft behind me, i didn't even know i kicked one loose till another buddy came around and to the top to inform us that someone got caught in a avalanche. all the ones at the bottom watched everything from a safe distance and while 3 of them helped our buddy the other one ran up the hill to get the rest of us to help. the hill was not big at all, but i think the combination of sun all weekend long then it was in the shade made it unstable. we had been climbing hills all day and the snow stayed in place, it just happened to be right when we was leaving and in the trees....hopefully this is my 1st and last avy expierence.

 

[skibreeze]

Good post Cabinman, everybody needs to realize that even on small hills the danger is still there.

 

[snailbait]

Johnnie,
Sorry I missed the ride with you guys, glad you all made it home safe. It just goes to show you can never let your guard down....who woulda thought?...the end of the day!
Hope everyone learned a good lesson!

 

[cabinman]

epic day, great snow, great peeps. just be extra careful and be prepared for ANY hill to slide....watch behind you going downhill and watch the mtn. all around you going uphill. And this is the first avalanche i've kicked off in 28 years on or around snowmobiles. The snow cond. are bad but be as safe as you can and let's make it through the last little bit of this winter alive...if you wanna ever hook up send me a pm