An avalanche in New York caused by a Christmas Day storm has damaged a ski resort in the Catskill Mountains.
The storm brought high winds and more than 6 inches (15 cm) of rain to the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.
The ski resort is cleaning up on Christmas after an avalanche in New York smashed into a lodge. The avalanche caused some serious damage.
Officials at the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Ulster County say the snow slide happened Friday morning. It was caused by heavy rainfall, high amounts of snow on the ground, and warm temperatures.
The resort posted an update on its website saying “This morning, supersaturated snow from the Yahoo trail let loose and slid into the Overlook Lodge.”
Belleayre’s general manager Bruce Transue received an alert of a break-in at the Overlook Lodge around 5:30 a.m. only to learn that snow, water, and debris were the culprits.
The windows have been blown out on the uphill side, the doorways and a lot of water damage. We probably had four foot of snow inside the base lodge in the upstairs.
Bruce Transue
Transue says he doesn’t believe something like this has ever happened at the resort before. An avalanche in New York is a rather uncommon event.
Resort to Remain Closed December 26
In a bit of a Christmas miracle, no one was injured. The resort was scheduled to be closed on Friday due to the storm. However, they will remain closed through Saturday, Dec. 26th to continue clean up efforts.
In an update, the resort said “For those of you that had tickets for the 26th, please complete the Customer Service form and we will get back to you with regards to your purchases as soon as possible.”
Transue says Belleayre Mountain plans to be back open Sunday, Dec. 27th.
Avalanche damage to the lodge at Belleayre Mountain Ski Center
A final report on a fatal skier triggered avalanche that killed two Durango backcountry skiers last weekend says it appears the skiers likely triggered the slide while climbing up an avalanche path.
The skier triggered avalanche occurred on a steep slope above tree line. “They went on a day that wasn’t a good day to be there,” the official report said. Other skiers in the area that day were interviewed. They mostly stayed in lower angle areas and in the trees. They noted the dangerous conditions on the higher, steeper and open slopes.
The Avalanche Events
The two skiers – identified as Dr. Jeff Paffendorf, 53, and Albert “Bert” Perry, 55 – left Durango on Saturday morning, December 19, to ski the north face of an area known as Battleship, northwest of Silverton.
The report says the pair reached the trailhead about 10 a.m. They then skied about a mile before coming down a slope into Mineral Creek.
From the bottom, the Colorado Avalanche Center said, they headed east and onto the north face of Battleship. The two made one run, then climbed west through sparse woods toward the center of the north face of Battleship.
It is believed they were traveling uphill in an avalanche path when they triggered the slide, which started above them. It is not uncommon for slides to break above skiers.
“Ascending a big avalanche path during conditions like that is dangerous,” said Ethan Greene, executive director of the CAIC. “It’s a really unfortunate accident.”
The avalanche occurred on a steep slope above tree line. It had a crown face about 12 to 20 inches deep and about 700 feet wide. The avalanche ran 1,600 vertical feet, from the alpine into a tree-line creek bed.
Around 8 p.m., Paffendorf and Perry were reported overdue. Crews with San Juan Search and Recuse began a mission, and a Flight For Life helicopter scanned the area. They found “significant avalanche activity” on Battleship.
Because of the significant avalanche risk and the dangers of traveling at night the search was postponed until morning.
Recovery by Friends
However, three close friends of Paffendorf and Perry went to search for them on their own. They followed tracks to the avalanche debris and used avalanche beacons.
The friends found the pair before midnight at an elevation of about 11,100 feet. Both skiers had deployed their avalanche airbags. The friends excavated the bodies and marked the location. They returned to the trailhead around 2 a.m.
Greene said Paffendorf and Perry were “very experienced backcountry travelers.” But he said conditions so far this year have presented avalanche risks not seen in recent years, so places people may be familiar with could hold dangers that haven’t existed on previous trips.
Conditions
On the day of the accident the avalanche danger in the San Juan Mountains was “considerable.” It is not the highest risk category but one that highlights possible avalanche danger and the need for sound decision-making.
The unstable snowpack is a result of early season snow in October and dry weather for weeks in November. That caused the snowpack to become weak. Additional snow on top of that weak layer causes avalanches.
Of the pair’s friends’ rescue attempt, the report states that “the three rescuers were willing to accept a level of risk that was not appropriate for Search and Rescue. While they found the bodies hours before Search and Rescue would have, the swifter discovery did not change the outcome of the accident.”
Paffendorf was an anesthesiologist at Mercy Regional Medical Center for the past eight years. Perry was a homebuilder before becoming a realtor for Coldwell Banker Heritage House Realtors in Durango about four years ago.
Friends and colleagues have noted how experienced and familiar the pair was with the terrain.
“This year is a little bit different,” he said. “That place you always go to, think about whether it’s a good day to go there.”
An Elko, Nevada, snowmobiler died in a Wyoming avalanche on Friday. It is estimated that he was buried inverted under the snow for about 15 minutes.
Brandon Jones, 41, was snowmobiling away from his party late on Dec. 18 on “Suicide Mountain”. He triggered a medium-sized avalanche 24″ deep. He was able to deploy an airbag, which kept him near the snow surface with a leg sticking out.
“The balloon worked – it kept him up above. If someone would have seen it, he probably would have survived it, because they would have dug him out” said Lincoln County Coroner Dain Schwab.
When the other snowmobilers did recover him he lacked a pulse, was blue in the face, and wasn’t breathing. The man who found Jones suspected he had broken his neck. Schwab ordered a CT scan to see if this was a factor in the death. CPR was not administered, according to the coroner, who visited the scene the night of the accident.
“It was actually pretty dangerous just digging him out of there,” Schwab said. “We were up on the hillside under cornices that were unbroken.”
First Wyoming Fatality, in the Salt River Range
Jones and his group were snowmobiling in the Sheep Pass area, southeast of Afton at the far southern end of the Salt River Range. The slide occurred at nearly 10,000 feet on an eastern aspect.
The fatality marks the first lethal avalanche of the winter in Northwest Wyoming.
The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center Director visited the site on Sunday to investigate. He determined the avalanche ran over the crusted snowpack that baked in the sun during the dry spell in late November and early December.
“We dug a snow pit near the site yesterday, and we feel confident that this was all the new snow that has fallen since Dec. 11,” he said. “The avalanche conditions are still dangerous up there. People should be careful.”
The avalanche danger on Monday morning was still deemed “considerable” at high elevations in the Salt and Wyoming ranges, according to the morning forecast.
Jones had a wife, Mary, and three kids, Blayde, Ebony and Slayde, according to a Facebook post by the Elko business Evolution Powersports. A funeral service has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday in Malad, Idaho.
As of December 22 this is one of 3 fatal incidents listed by the Avalanche Center, along with 3 others outside the US. There is also a link to the avalanche advisory for the day there.
The yellow symbol marks the site of the fatal Wyoming avalanche on Friday.
A ski patroller buried by an avalanche was on the northeast end of the Anthracite Range, known as Friendly Finish, in the Gunnison area. He was touring alone in the backcountry at the time.
GUNNISON COUNTY, Colo. — A solo backcountry skier died in an avalanche in the Gunnison area on Friday.
The man was skiing on the northeast end of the Anthracite Range when he was buried in an avalanche. The area is known locally as “friendly finish”.
The avalanche occurred on a northeast-facing slope and the avalanche risk was rated as “considerable,” or 3 out of 5. The slide took place at about 10,500 feet.
Victim Identified as Ski Patroller Jeff Schneider
Crested Butte Ski Patrol identified the ski patroller buried by an avalanche as Jeff Schneider in a Facebook post.
“Jeff was a bastion of kindness, knowledge, hard work, wit, and humor,” the post read. “A legendary Ski Patroller in Crested Butte, and Aspen before that, adventure had no better emissary. We wish you well on the last leg of the ultimate adventure. Rest peacefully, and may you make many, many turns, each one better than the last.”
Before descending, the victim spoke with two other skiers who were also traveling in the area. When the other two skiers finished their descent they found the victim’s snowmobile parked, and there was no sign of him. The skiers then snowmobiled to a position where they could see the slope that the victim planned to descend and saw a fresh avalanche. They then located the victim with a transceiver and recovered his body.
This was the first US avalanche-related death of the season. The only other incident this season was on Dec. 15, when a snowboarder was caught in an avalanche on Snodgrass Mountain and was injured.
Last season, there were six avalanche-related deaths, according to CAIC.
The avalanche where a ski patroller was buried in an avalanche on December 17.
This was the first fatality of the season in the US and the second in North America, according to this list.
An avalanche swept a snowboarder into a tree on Tuesday afternoon. It happened on Snodgrass Mountain near Crested Butte. The snowboarder was on a split board.
The Colorado Avalanche Center said the boarder and a skier skinned up the south side of the mountain and were descending the north side in an area called First Bowl, which is at an elevation around 10,000 feet. That’s when a slab avalanche released and swept the boarder into a tree injuring his leg.
The party was able to call 911 for help and a rescue team responded shortly thereafter. The avalanche took place within old snow on a slope with a northeast aspect.
While there have been several media worthy avalanche accidents already this season the official fatality list shows none in the US so far.
Site where an avalanche swept a snowboarder into a tree, CAIC
Site where an avalanche injured a snowboarder – CAIC
Avalanche risk is already present in Colorado despite the lack of early season snow. According to a report to the Colorado Avalanche Center a skier was caught in a human-caused avalanche burial on Monday near Marble.
The small avalanche occurred in a small gully near a grouping of trees at about 10,400 feet of elevation. As the first skier crossed a steeper section of terrain the slide carried the skier downhill. The skier was uninjured and didn’t require any sort of official search and rescue effort.
While most of the terrain being crossed by skiers in the group at the time was lower angle, small sections of steeper slope were present. According to someone at the scene, ‘complacency’ was a factor in the avalanche burial.
When the slide was triggered, the group was returning to their car. They had previously noted “major instabilities” at higher elevations. However, the terrain they were traveling just prior to the avalanche is described as having a “gentle slope angle”. It was so low-angle that it was impossible to maintain momentum.
The author of the report wrote: “This slide was a sharp reminder of the potential consequences of any backcountry terrain, even in the relatively benign areas that we traverse on approaches to and exists from the main ski runs.”
Current Risk
Those entering the backcountry in Colorado should know that avalanche risk is already present. This example shows that low risk terrain can still have localized high risk areas that should not be overlooked.
Currently the avalanche risk in Colorado is rated as moderate to considerable. Levels two and three on a five-level scale.
Avalanche observation reports made by both officials and the public indicate that there have been 219 slides so far this season. Unobserved and unreported slides have probably occurred in addition to those.
If you’re entering the backcountry this season, do so only with the proper training and equipment.
Nearly 40% of the people caught in an avalanche last season had taken a traditional style formal Level 1 avalanche class. About 70% had intermediate or advanced avalanche education.
A ski guide died here in a wet slab snow avalanche in dense trees.
Ethan Greene and Spencer Logan released a report on the avalanche education and backcountry experience of 126 people involved in 88 avalanches last season. They also studied the changes in accidents after the pandemic shut down resorts and backcountry use exploded. Which is widely expected to happen again this winter as resorts grapple with limited crowds.
The study is one of the first to consider not only the small pool of accidents that resulted in fatalities or injuries, but all incidents. Including avalanches where no one was caught or hurt. “The fatal accidents don’t tell the whole story,” Greene said. “We wanted to dig a little bit deeper to see if we could come up with something that could help us understand this better.”
In addition to determining avalanche education through direct interviews, Greene and Logan developed a system based on several research models to rank avalanche education experience using indirect evidence. Like reports from observers’ interviews and second-hand descriptions.
They found that most people involved in avalanches last season had intermediate or advanced levels of education. This mirrors previous research.
For their study, Green and Logan identified 126 people involved in 86 avalanches last season. Those 126 include:
And those travelers were pretty well educated. Nearly 40% of the people had taken a formal Level 1 avalanche class. About 70% had intermediate or advanced avalanche training.
Fatal avalanche, April 16, 2020
Greene and Logan grouped incidents by the months before the closure of ski resorts and the weeks afterward.. From late November to mid-February, they recorded 16 people involved in 11 avalanches with six burials and four deaths. In the roughly six weeks following the closure of resorts, the center recorded 10 people involved in nine avalanches that killed two people.
Following the shutdown of ski areas the proportion of incidents involving very experienced backcountry travelers — which Greene and Logan defined as “advanced” — climbed compared to the number of incidents involving beginners and intermediates, said Greene. “These are small numbers, but this would suggest that there were more people with avalanche education getting involved in accidents after the shutdown and any increase in accidents was not due to more beginners getting into trouble,” he said.
88 people caught and carried in moving slides
6 people killed
8 people who triggered avalanches but were not caught
30 people not touched by moving snow
76 males and 13 females
86 backcountry tourers
13 motorized travelers
According to the study it might not be the newcomers behind any potential increases in avalanche accidents this season. Their research upends the assumption that beginners are more dangerous than more experienced travelers.
Halsted Morris, president of the American Avalanche Association, wants to see skiing and snowmobiling abilities more closely studied alongside avalanche education and experience.
“We get into this argument all the time around the idea that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and that is not entirely true, I believe,” said Morris, a longtime avalanche educator. “If that was true, we would not have so many experienced and skilled people getting in trouble. We would have people with no education getting into trouble.”
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The extreme avalanche situation in East Tyrol was made clear by an avalanche on Saturday evening in Prägraten am Großvenediger. Four houses and one vehicle were damaged. People were not injured. There were other snow avalanches with individual damaged buildings.
The Tyrolean avalanche warning service “imposed” avalanche warning level 5, i.e. very high risk, over East Tyrol. Spontaneous avalanches are to be expected from high catchment areas in the course of the day. In isolated cases they could also be extremely large. But at the same time, the head of the avalanche warning service, Rudi Mair, calmed down a bit. Due to the relatively warm temperatures and sometimes a lot of rain, wet snow avalanches in particular are to be expected, not powder avalanches. The latter would cause greater damage.
The emergency services also had to fight on all fronts due to the enormous rainfall in the state. Governor Günther Platter (ÖVP) assured East Tyrol financial support. District chief Olga Reisner appealed to the population to stay at home.
Lots of fresh snow in Carinthia
In Carinthia, enormous amounts of fresh snow in the Lesach Valley, the Gail Valley and the Upper Möll Valley. This resulted in roadblocks and an extreme avalanche situation. The milder temperatures in lower elevations caused some slopes to slide. Mudslides also blocked the road. The SPÖ regional councilor and disaster control officer Daniel Fellner appealed to the population in all areas affected by the weather to stay in their homes.
All emergency vehicles from the road maintenance depots were in constant use. Fellner asked the population in Upper Carinthia to adhere to the orders of the emergency services: “Please stay in your houses and do not climb the snow-covered roofs to shovel them free”.
After avalanches, some roads were closed, while snow chains were compulsory on others. In the course of the afternoon and towards evening, the snow in Lower Carinthia increasingly turned into rain showers. For the night it was expected that the precipitation would subside, but there should be some stormy wind in the Karawanken valleys.
New highs
According to the first data evaluation, the 24-hour fresh snow amounts at some ZAMG weather stations in the affected areas of the two federal states were in the record range. A “record” was even exceeded. In Umhausen in the Ötztal (1,030 meters above sea level) it snowed around 80 centimeters from Saturday to Sunday, the record for 24 hours there was 45 centimeters from October 2013. Measurements have been made here since 1956.
On the Brenner (1,400 meters) it snowed around 90 centimeters from Saturday to Sunday (record: 100 centimeters, measured in March 1975). In St. Jakob / Defereggen (East Tyrol, 1,283 meters) there was a snow cover of 110 centimeters on Sunday morning, in Döllach in the Upper Mölltal (Carinthia, 1,071 meters) of 97 centimeters and in Sillian (East Tyrol, 1,081 meters) of 89 centimeters.
According to ZAMG, it snowed around 100 to 150 centimeters from Friday to Sunday morning on the mountains of Upper Carinthia, East Tyrol and in the area of the main Tyrolean Alpine ridge. Sometimes a little more. There will be another 50 to 100 centimeters of fresh snow by Monday, according to the forecast. After that, the situation should ease. The foehn storm still reached more than 100 km / h in the mountains on Sunday morning.
BERLIN (AP) — An avalanche accident killed one skier in Switzerland.
Authorities in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden said one off-piste skier among a group of five people was killed in an avalanche accident Monday in the Titlis area, south of Lucerne. Rescue teams were not able to resuscitate the 23-year-old Swiss citizen after he was rescued.
The victim died on the scene near the Titlis mountain. Two others, out of five, were also hit but managed to free themselves without serious injury.
The group was skiing off-piste when the avalanche struck at around 10.15am. An investigation into what triggered the avalanche is ongoing.
A 23-year-old German man was also injured in an avalanche accident Monday in Austria’s Hahnenkamm skiing region in Tyrol. He went skiing on a closed slope. He was taken by rescue plane to a hospital in Kempten in Bavaria.
In a broad swath of the Alps in Switzerland, authorities raised the avalanche warning level to 3 on a five-point scale. Exceptionally heavy snowfall was dumped over the weekend. Some higher elevations recorded between 50 and 80 centimeters (20-32 inches) of snow over the last three days.
Snow Pummels Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland
Several roads were still closed in Tyrol and some valleys were cut off from the rest of the country. Electricity provider Tinetz said 4,000 homes lost power after several electrical lines were snapped by snow or fallen trees, public broadcaster ORF reported.
Austria issued avalanche warnings Tuesday for the country’s mountainous east after days of heavy snow pummeled the region.
Northern Italy saw massive snowfall over the weekend and snow also hit parts of Germany and Spain as well.
“It’s true that it’s early for the season” to have so much snowfall, said Mikhael Schwander, a meteorologist with Swiss weather service MeteoSuisse. He said the higher the elevation that the snow fell, the greater the risk of avalanches — although that also depends on other factors including the temperature and the types of snow on the ground.
According to SRF Meteo there is an elevated avalanche threat throughout northern Ticino, including Centovalli, and in the southern valleys of Graubünden and the Upper Engadine. In these regions, it’s a Level 4 on the five-part danger scale.
Around 280 sheep and goats were buried under the snow due to an avalanche in the Parbati valley on Saturday. According to information, 130 sheep of Gurdayal Singh, 120 sheep of Raju and 30 sheep of Room Singh, all from Barshaini village, were grazing at Shilha Nala and were buried in a large snow avalanche.
The villagers carried out the rescue operation but only 70 sheep could be saved. A team of district administration, police and Animal Husbandry Department visited the spot. Barshaini panchayat president Jairam said adequate compensation should be provided to the herders.
