Category Archives: Education

New Essential Reading for Winter Recreation: Fatal Avalanches in the US, 2021-2022

Leave a reply

Press Release via Google News and PR*Urgent

Description: Every year a multitude of people venture out into the snow to go snowshoeing, skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling or climbing. Many are not fully informed of the dangers and the necessary risk management practices. This book sheds light on the fatalities that occurred last year and what went wrong in order to help others learn and improve their own margin of safety.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On sale now
ISBN: 979-8371006769
<a href="https://<a href='http://www.avalanche-center.org/book/' rel='nofollow'>www.avalanche-center.org/book/https://www.avalanche-center.org/book/

Fatal Avalanches in the US: 2021-2022 reviews in detail all of the fatal snow avalanches of the season. They are summarized collectively, each is described, and noteworthy factors are discussed. Finally, the common factors and problems behind these tragic events are discussed. This information is invaluable for helping skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, climbers, and others avoid such incidents in the future.

This 1st edition reviews the 17 avalanche fatalities between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 in clear terms with simple and clear snowpack diagrams and no technical obfuscation. The focus is on understanding what went wrong and how risk management could have been improved.

“While it remains our right to venture forth into avalanche terrain it also remains our responsibility to manage our own risk, to our own acceptable level. Hopefully these experiences of others will contribute in some way to that. “ – James Frankenfield, Author

Fatal Avalanches in the US: 2021-2022: A Review of the Season’s Fatal Avalanches is a must-have book for anyone recreating outdoors in winter. It can be found both in Paperback and Kindle form on Amazon at <a href="https://<a href='http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQY4RNZV' rel='nofollow'>www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQY4RNZVhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQY4RNZV

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – James Frankenfield is a snow and avalanche professional with decades of experience as a skier/climber, snow scientist and engineer and mountain safety educator. He earned his M.Sc. in Physics in 1990 by studying seasonal snow and avalanches and has done scientific work in the field. In 1993 he started Avalanche-Center.org on USENET and a university gopher server and manages this project on the web to this day. He has climbed, soloed and guided alpine climbs throughout the western US, soloed a section of the Northville-Placid trail in winter in 1984, and has soloed multi-day glacier ski tours in the Alps. His website is snowman-jim.org

###

CONTACT: The Avalanche Center (Avalanche-Center.org)
877-604-0166
snowavalanche-center.org

Silverton Avalanche School dropped from lawsuit

Leave a reply

It appears that Silverton Avalanche School was dropped from the lawsuit by the Marshall family, along with their guide. Neither party has commented so a settlement amount was most likely agreed on.

The family of Peter Marshall, who died in an avalanche during an AIARE advanced avalanche safety class with the Silverton Avalanche School, has dropped the school and teacher from their lawsuit. It appears that a settlement was reached. A complaint remains open against Backcountry Access, their owner K2 Sports, and K2 owner Kohlberg & Company.

Settlement Reached with Silverton Avalanche School?

Two years after the death Marshall’s wife and daughter sued San Juan Search and Rescue, the Silverton Avalanche School and the school’s guide, Zachary Lovell, in a wrongful death lawsuit. Last month the family dropped its claims against the county, school and guide. Attorneys for the Marshall family have not returned calls or responded to emails and representatives from the county and school declined to comment, indicating a settlement amount was most likely agreed upon.

The Fatal Avalanche Accident and the Allegations

The family had argued that the school and guide had misled Marshall into taking the class by “falsely presenting” that school staff “possessed deep operational experience in avalanche terrain.” The family also claimed the school and guide displayed gross negligence.

Marshall had been participating in the Silverton Avalanche School Level 2 American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) class on Jan. 5, 2019. He was swept down a slope in an avalanche that caught five other skiers. Four were not buried. Another was buried but was able to extricate himself. When the skiers freed Marshall from the debris, he was not breathing.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) report pointed to several mistakes during the advanced class, including a group of skiers gathered on a slope steep enough to slide, those skiers misjudging the steepness of that slope and a failure to recognize clear avalanche hazards. The guide triggered the first avalanche, which swept the whole group down the slope. A second avalanche buried Marshall under several feet of snow.

Remaining Complaint Against Backcountry Access and K2 Sports

The family of the 40-year-old Longmont skier is still suing K2 Sports and its subsidiary Backcountry Access, which makes an air bag backpack that was not deployed when rescuers found Marshall buried in more than 8 feet of avalanche debris. “Peter Marshall attempted to trigger his Float 32 avalanche air bag system but it did not fully deploy or inflate,” according to the complaint filed in Boulder District Court.

Marshall’s Backcountry Access Float 32 pack was not inflated. Colorado Avalanche Information Center investigators said in their report that the air bag backpack “was functioning properly,” with “the trigger out of the pack strap, but the bag was not deployed.”

K2 Sports, owned by private equity firm Kohlberg & Company, denied the allegations in a response filed this month. The K2 lawyers cited 16 facts they believe eliminate liability in their motion to dismiss the case. 

Previous Float Pack Problems

The complaint notes that Backcountry Access recalled “substantially similar” Float packs due to a problem that could lead to a failure to deploy. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reported the recall of 8,200 Float 18 packs on Nov. 26, 2013. They warned that the trigger assembly can fail “resulting in the air bag not deploying, posing a risk of death and injury in the event of an avalanche.”

The complaint by the Marshall family argues Backcountry Access “should have known insufficient changes were made to the design of avalanche air bags manufactured after the recall to prevent such failures.” The lawsuit argues that Backcountry Access should have been aware of “safer alternative designs,” such as a remote or automatic triggering or inflation system.

Another skier in the group was wearing an avalanche air bag and attempted to use it when he was swept off his feet. It also failed to inflate. “Later, he determined that he assembled the trigger mechanism incorrectly,” reads the CAIC report. It did not identify the brand of air bag used by that skier.

A 2014 study showed 60% of avalanche accidents involving skiers with un-inflated air bags were because the skier never pulled the trigger. That study also showed 12% of so-called non-inflation incidents were due to user error, including assembling the trigger mechanism incorrectly.

Site of fatal avalanche. During a Level 2 AIARE course held by Silverton Avalanche School.
Site of the fatal avalanche during a Level 2 AIARE course behind the lawsuit against Silverton Avalanche School (settled) and Backcountry Access.

Snowboarder caught in avalanche carried 1,000 feet, deployed airbag

1 Reply

Maurice Kervin has spent 65 days snowboarding so far this season. Friday is a day he won’t forget. On that day the snowboarder was caught in an avalanche.

“Friday was beautiful. It was golden. We had actually been planning all week to ski this line,” he said.

Recent AIARE Course

Kervin had recently completed a Level 1 safety course through the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE).

All week he and his friends had been watching the avalanche forecast and felt conditions were improving.

“Everyone was actually really excited that the avalanche danger level had actually gone down,” said Kervin. He wasn’t as sure about the forecast, adding, “I was very concerned. I was like, ‘I don’t know guys.'”

Nervous about the day

Kervin and his riding partner hiked toward a spot called No Name near Loveland Pass. They continued to check conditions on their way. And they tested patches of snow for stability. Although the results didn’t show any signs of instability he felt nervous before dropping in.

“I remember telling my buddy ‘I don’t know man. I’m kind of nervous about this run, and if it goes it’s probably going to go big,'” said Kervin.

Kervin think he made it a third of the way down when everything changed. Then the snowboarder was caught in the avalanche.

Caught in an Avalanche

“I cut into a thin patch of snow in some cliff bands. At that point it released below me and the whole slab started to go underneath me. I looked up and around and I saw the snow start coming down from above,” said Kervin.

The avalanche happened quickly and swept him off his feet.

“I definitely wasn’t in control at all, the avalanche was in control. I never had a doubt in my mind that I was going to get buried. My biggest concern was that I was going to hurt myself in some way and make it difficult getting off the mountain,” said Kervin.

He deployed the avalanche airbag in his backpack.

“So I freed my hands, I pulled the bag and I started to do backstroke and kick my feet up to stay on top of the snow, basically just to make myself as big and less dense as possible,” said Kervin.

Kervin was carried about 1,000 feet before he came to a stop on the snow surface. In his video you can hear his air bag fill up. Then seconds later his board hits a large rock where he went over a cliff.

“I was very calm through the whole thing. I think that’s very important thing to be in such a situation. Often times when people panic they make poor decisions or don’t make any decisions at all,” said Kervin.

Role of Training and an Airbag

He made it out with only a dislocated finger. He’s been skiing and riding in the backcountry for about 10 years and completed a Level 1 safety course through AIARE. Despite that, he did not avoid the recognized risk. But Kervin believes the airbag and his training likely saved his life. “I knew what we were doing, and the possibilities that I had feared came true,” said Kervin. He called 911 to report the avalanche but did not require assistance from a rescue team.

He was skiing again the very next day but he wants his story to be an cautionary tale for others who might be venturing into the backcountry, some for the first time.

A snowboarder was caught in an avalanche.
Snowboarder caught in avalanche

Silverton Avalanche School raises money with Rando Race

1 Reply

Silverton Avalanche School is the beneficiary of the second annual Know the Snow Rando Race. The race at Purgatory raises money for the Know the Snow Fund which supports avalanche classes.

This year’s race was dedicated to the memory of Bert Perry and Jeff Paffendorf, Durango community members and experienced backcountry enthusiasts who recently died in an avalanche outside of Silverton.

Dr. Jeff Paffendorf, an experienced skier, died on Dec. 10 along with Albert Perry. They were caught in an avalanche they triggered on the north face of the Battleship, which is near Silverton.

Their accident shows just how unstable the snowpack was. It is important for backcountry skiers to be as knowledgeable as possible about the conditions they will face.

Wind blown snow was deposited on the slope where Paffendorf and Perry skied. It accumulated on an unstable base layer. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center had reported that the avalanche danger was considerable that day.

In 2020, the race raised more than $10,000 and provided 19 scholarships for skiers to attend avalanche education courses with Silverton Avalanche School. The funds fully paid for Level 1 and Level 2 avalanche courses at Silverton Avalanche School.

Silverton Avalanche School Rando Race promo
Rando Race promo.

Silverton Avalanche School Avalanche

Avalanche Lawsuit names Silverton Avalanche School, guide and BCA

3 Replies

Peter Marshall died in an avalanche during an avalanche safety class near Red Mountain Pass in 2019. In an avalanche lawsuit his family names the school, the guide, and Backcountry Access.

The slide swept six skiers down a slope. All of them were part of a Level 2 American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) class. Which was offered by the Silverton Avalanche School.

Site of a fatal avalanche during an AIARE Level 2 avalanche class.
Site of the 2019 avalanche which caught six participants in an AIARE Level 2 avalanche class taught by Silverton Avalanche School.

 The family is suing the guide, school and local rescue group. And also the maker of an avalanche airbag and its private equity firm owner. This lawsuit marks the second recent legal action involving avalanches based on reports by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC). 

Lawsuit defendants

The wrongful death lawsuit names Silverton Avalanche School, San Juan County Search and Rescue and guide Zachary Lovell. It alleges a litany of failures, fraud, misrepresentation, negligence and consumer protection law violations. 

The lawsuit also charges Boulder-based Backcountry Access (BCA) with making a defective Float 32 avalanche airbag. It says the airbag did not inflate after Marshall “attempted to trigger” the balloon-like backpack. The lawsuit also names Kohlberg & Company, the private equity firm that acquired BCA and parent company K2 Sports. 

“The defendants, each of them, acted willfully, wantonly, and recklessly, without regard for the consequences or the rights and safety of Peter Marshall or of others,” reads the lawsuit. It argues the school, guide and airbag maker “created substantial and unreasonable risks of serious injury and death to participants” in the avalanche class. “Defendants were grossly negligent and that gross negligence was a cause of the injuries, damages, and losses suffered by plaintiffs and the heirs of Peter Marshall.” The CAIC  report noted several mistakes that led to the avalanche. The group was skiing together on a slope that was steep enough to avalanche. They misjudged the steepness, aspect and avalanche danger on the slope they skied. And they failed to recognize the potential for triggering avalanches on nearby slopes. 

Allegations against the school and guide

The avalanche was triggered by the guide. It also caught Marshall and carried him to the bottom of the slope. A second avalanche on an adjacent slope buried Marshall in several feet of snow. Lovell and the students searched for Marshall. He was uncovered after 50 minutes. 

Avalanche death in a Level 2 avalanche class
The 2019 avalanche which caught six participants in an AIARE Level 2 avalanche class taught by Silverton Avalanche School. The original snow slide is off the edge on the right, the debris and star are where the second avalanche buried and killed a student.

In the 12 days before the slide, the avalanche center logged 72 avalanches in the North San Juans and noted “considerable” danger. The lawsuit says Silverton Avalanche School staff and instructors agreed not to travel in avalanche terrain that weekend with students. 

During those discussions, school staff “expressed concern that defendant Lovell seemed inclined to travel in more complex and bigger terrain. Despite the fragile snowpack and concerning avalanche conditions,” reads the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit cites several dozen failures by both the school and Lovell. Those include charges of negligence. Like failing to communicate the day’s avalanche forecast. And allowing instructors to lead students “into, through and below” avalanche terrain. The lawsuit also says the school and Lovell “falsely represented” training and qualifications.  The lawsuit notes that BCA in October 2013 recalled some of Float airbags.

Second Lawsuit to rely on CAIC reports

The lawsuit marks a second recent case where a CAIC report supports legal action. In October Summit County prosecutor Bruce Brown levied a $168,000 fine against two snowboarders who triggered an avalanche above the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels in March. The slide buried a service road and destroyed remote avalanche mitigation devices. The two snowboarders gave video to CAIC avalanche investigators. They thought their interviews and perspective would help others avoid future avalanche accidents.  A motion filed by the snowboarders’ attorney in November to suppress the video argued the criminal charges stemming from an avalanche could pose a slippery slope for backcountry skiers who traditionally have worked cooperatively with the avalanche center in detailing avalanche accidents. 

“The backcountry community needs to know if CAIC is not an ally in their efforts to improve best avalanche practices, but (operates) merely as an extension of law enforcement,” the motion reads. “This is a posture that needs to be clarified for all parties, because if CAIC is seen as a revolving door to police and prosecutor there will be a chilling effect.”

Avalanche testing before skiing encouraged by Forest Service

Leave a reply

Skiers activities that often lead them to backcountry locations with limited services. Monday morning (12/28) Forest Service avalanche experts warned of possible avalanche activity when visiting these areas. They recommend doing some avalanche testing before using steep slopes.

“We have a block of harder snow over a section of weak sugary facets of the ground, so we have something over nothing,” said Dave Zinn, avalanche expert. “This is the recipe for an avalanche, all you need now is a steep slope and a trigger.”

Triggers can be caused either by nature — rain, snow, sun, wind — or by human activity.

“The danger is moderate, but it’s sort of that scary moderate because human triggered avalanches remain possible,” said Zinn. “If we trigger them, they could be large — and definitely big enough to injure, bury or kill an individual.”

“Really watch out for those signs of instability — like shooting cracks. Do some avalanche testing – dig stability tests, do an extended column test, see if you get stable results,” said Zinn. “And if you don’t see (stable results), find a different slope.”

Previous reports from 2017 to 2019 showed six-of-ten accidents occurred in January and February. Five of which, resulted in a death. It is not listed what caused these avalanches were deaths occurred but leads experts to continue to urge people to test they go.

Avalanche Testing - forest service
Testing the snow

NBC Montana

Avalanche beacon training park established near Minturn

Leave a reply

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.

avalanche beacon training park

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

Study shows more accidents with more Avalanche Education

2 Replies

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.

snow avalanche
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.”

Comments are welcome below – no account necessary.

Most Colorado Avalanches Don’t Involved Beginners

Leave a reply

November, 2020

The Colorado Avalanche Center (CAIC) recently published a report related to how the COVID-19 pandemic and correlated surge of backcountry use has impacted avalanche numbers in Colorado. One key finding was that while the number of backcountry beginners involved in snow avalanches stayed similar before and after the pandemic and the number of intermediate users involved in avalanches actually decreased, the number of advanced skiers involved in avalanches spiked.

Another trend discovered in the report was that more avalanche-related accidents occurred during ‘considerable’ avalanche risk days, despite less total ‘considerable’ risk days during the season.

During their analysis, the Avalanche Center categorized those involved in avalanches based on their skill level. Fifteen percent were beginner, 25 percent were intermediate, 47 percent were advanced, and 8 percent were expert.

According to the CAIC Avalanche Center, results from this study align with previous research that has indicated that avalanche education does not reduce avalanche exposure.

Another interesting finding from the CAIC study was that most avalanche incidents during the 2019-2020 season occurred during level 2 (moderate) risk, accounting for 60 percent of incidents. Thirty percent of avalanches occurred during level 3 risk (considerable) risk.