Sunday, December 14, 2008

Racing an Avalanche

So Garrett and me...oh right, sorry grandma...GARRETT AND I were skiing at Snowbird today because we got a foot of fresh powder last night. For one of our first runs we took the Peruvian lift which is near Mt Baldy. The trail we took was right off the baldy trail where this avalanche was happening AS WE WERE SKIING IT. We didn't know this was happening so we took our time and took pictures, even took a break in the snow because it was so hard to navigate. So AS we were skiing down it they were closing it, because apparently powder up to your waist doesn't stay on shier vertical cliffs that well. When we reached the bottom we found out that this lady behind us got stuck in it and they found her a while later in critical condition.

Heres the story

And here are the pictures we took while all this was happening....
(as we were taking these pictures we heard the rescue helicopters fly in)


We weren't sinking all the way, but we wondered how deep the powder was so we stick our poles in and they were COMPLETELY buried...


Yup, I actually have my skis on in this picture, they're just buried under a foot or two of snow, haha!

Snowbird Trail Map:


Look at the far left, See the first red line? Thats the left we took. Now see Mt Baldy on the left of the lift? The very top double black off that is where we were. The avalanche happened on the white patch above it.

1 comment:

Deb said...

http://utahavalanchecenter.org/services/advisories

Check out that website. It has current avalanche warnings and pictures of recent avalanches in Utah. It also gives details on the woman who was involved in your avalanche. Unfortunately, it does not have a happy ending.