Snowmobiler killed in Togwotee

[Seedie_Man]

The other death was a tree hit, not an avy.

 

[backcountryislife]

According to one of the reports on this, "This is the second death in February of a Minnesota person on the same mountain in Wyoming." Perhaps, this is also something that should be looked into. Death occurring twice in a row on same location gives me the creeps. It is either the area isn't that conducive for riding or there's more to it than meets the eye.

Even if it was two avy's in a given time... there's no surprise there.

Avy terrain is dangerous, simple as that. Whether 1, 5, or 50... a hill that the guide says to stay away from is just that... something you should avoid.
I don't think there's anything that needs looking into, aside from getting people to get more educated, and avoid the behaviors that create this kind of situation.

Avy's will continue to happen though, because people enjoy risk taking behavior, and they just don't think fully of the risks that really are involved.

 

[HMC 399]

We have a pretty simple rule in the group I ride in, the minority rules. If even one person says to "stay away" from what they perceive as a potentially dangerous (avalanche) hill, or feels uneasy about any hill, we do, no debate, no discussion, we move on. Having set off a couple in the early years of my mountain riding(grew up in Minnesota), I learned very quickly to respect mother nature, part of that respect is getting a little education. There have been too many good people lost by slides, it's not worth the risk. Plenty of ways to get the juices flowing w/o tempting the avalanche God's. I think there are way too many uneducated mountain riders when it comes to slides, and with how good the stockers are now days, education is more critical now then ever before in our sport. I've found one of the best educational sources to be fellow riders, almost all riders have egos as big as Texas, myself included, but when I shut up and listen to other riders I often find myself a little smarter. I'm sure the guide wishes he would have been a tad more assertive, I'm sure the rest of the riders wish they would have listened a little more that day, and I know we all wish our fellow rider wouldn't have been caught in this. I wasn't there so I'm not passing any judgement, I just hope as a community we get a little bit smarter when it comes to slides, and minimize as much as possible the risks.

 

[Bendy]

Sad outcome

It happened and its going to happen. Its human nature. There's always one guy who thinks it will never happen to him! Even us guys who have done this all our lives... know there is a high risk involved. We take all the training and precautions, have a good life insurance plan for our dependents and kiss them and tell them we love them before each trip. Because we know even when you have the gear and training... even when the condtions are fair... we might not come home!