Lake Tahoe Palisades Avalanche

[shortydude]

https://time.com/6554214/avalanche-c...s-tahoe-death/

1 dead, 3 injured in opening day avalanche.

[Steeps]

Inbounds, too... that's sad, and scary. The snowpack is pretty spooky around here again this year. We had several deaths in the area last year, including two just outside the resort boundaries. Patrol works hard to keep it safe inbounds, but sometimes things just rip loose with no warning.

[Baldybob]

Article in LA Times reported a snowboarder felt a blast of snow from overhead - -then in an instant he was thrown on his back and down a chute, flipped over on his stomach head first and buried under snow - -his fiancé watched from a few yards out of the zone -- a rescuer with a probe hit his back and woke him as he was on his way out of breath -- they dug him out and he boarded down to his car and returned to Reno -- Another man with his wife out on KT-22 was also sucked in and then found. These were the early birds on the first chairs of the season on KT-22. Mountain crews had worked and posted the area for its first opening for two days.

This incident was newsworthy because of an in bounds avalanche. On our last Shredfest 2023 at Heavenly - -a 44 year old skier or snowboarder from New York, died in an on mountain incident while we were on the mountain. Heavenly only had two California side chairs open in deep powder. We should have seen or heard something - -like an ambulance to the Cal Lodge. The death was not widely reported and no coverage in the LA Times. Was he a skier, snowboarder, did he wear a helmet, was he jumping the cliffs on the right side of the main lift, did he get into a tree well???? They kept it pretty quiet.
On a side note, Kirkwood opened the backside chairs 2,3,4 for the first time on Friday, Jan 12 - -a good sign that the Sierras are finally getting snow for a great season.

[Steeps]

There was a big one in-bounds that killed a skier last April at Lake Louise. It was in an area that had been closed off by patrol; sounds like three young skiers cut the ropes looking for some powder, and one of them paid with his life. This was a size 3, 200 m wide by 550 m long with a 40-50 cm crown. That's a lot of snow.... obey the signs!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...sort-1.6819944