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
DriveBC has shared dramatic aerial video of avalanche control work along the Trans-Canada Highway near Revelstoke.
Avalanches east of Revelstoke. Ministry of Transportation
The Ministry of Transportation’s Rocky Mountain District posted the avalanche control video to Twitter. It shows a slide being triggered and then thundering down a steep mountainside east of Revelstoke. The wave of snow careens down the slope and over a snow shed.
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.
A new avalanche beacon training park outside Minturn gives the public an accessible opportunity to practice using avalanche transceivers. Beacons are a critical piece of safety equipment for winter backcountry recreation.
“Record numbers of people are venturing into the backcountry, and the need for winter backcountry safety education is higher than ever,” said Ranger Leanne Veldhuis. “Avalanche transceivers are key to finding avalanche victims as soon as possible. But they are only effective if people know how to use them.”
The avalanche beacon training park is situated a short climb up the slope at the Mountain Meadow Trailhead on U.S. 24. Which is about quarter mile from the I-70 Minturn exit.
The park consists of eight buried transmitters that can be turned on and off from a small control panel. This allows for multiple search scenarios to familiarize people with using their avalanche transceivers and probing the snow for victims. It’s a self-operating system open all day to the public.
“Beacon parks have traditionally been located at ski areas, where access may be limited to pass holders,” Veldhuis said. “This accessible location should help encourage more people to become proficient using avalanche transceivers, which can help save lives.”
While avalanche transceivers are important if someone becomes buried in an avalanche, avoiding avalanches in the first place is the best strategy.
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 high pressure over Utah is finally breaking down and snow showers are expected this weekend. While that’s good news for the ski resorts, the conditions in the backcountry will become dangerous – even deadly conditions could exist.
Since the first snow of the season has fallen, there have been a lot of sunny days and a lot of clear, cold nights. What that’s done to the snowpack, according to Utah Avalanche Forecaster Trent Meisenheimer, is created the first condition for avalanche.
“We have generally shallow snow throughout the mountains,” says Meisenheimer. “What that creates is a very strong temperature difference in our snowpack right, so the ground stays relatively warm about 32 Fahrenheit and with that shallow snow the surface of the snow can be very cold like in the single digits cold. And that creates that big temperature difference across a very shallow layer of snow. And what that does is it makes our snow weak, or a term that gets thrown around a lot is faceted. Now what faceted snow is, is it takes that you know beautiful snowflake that falls out of the air and over a few days, it’ll actually become more square and angular, the shape of the crystal – and it’s just like rock salt or sand -if you could think about it that way. So, anywhere you look right now, and you see white snow on those hills it’s generally faceted snow. It’s become loose and sugary and weak.”
Avalanches are created when snow is faceted, and a slab of new snow drops on top of the old, rotten snow.
“And a slab can just be anything that’s a little bit more dense than the snow underneath it,” he explains. “And as you heard, we’re expecting storms starting Friday morning and then lasting it looks pretty good all the way through Christmas with snow stacking up in the mountains. Now, what this is going to do is it’s just going to raise our avalanche danger so because of that new snowfall, we’re gonna add a slab and now we’ve got avalanches throughout the mountains.”
No problem today – but this weekend things will change.
“Coming into the weekend, we’re gonna start building a slab on top of that weak layer and avalanches will become more likely,” he says. “So, what this means for us and what we need to do, is moving into the weekend, we need to be aware that this week snow exists and when we do get that stronger snow on top – we need to tone it down. So, that means sticking to slopes under 30 degrees in steepness. And really important, especially with weak layers, is that we don’t want to be under big slopes either because even if we’re standing on flat terrain and there’s that big, steep, hill above us, we can actually trigger the avalanche from below and have that avalanche come down on top of us.”
No one should be in the backcountry without a transceiver, probe, a shovel – and a partner.
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.
