6 caught in avy on Torreys (6/6)

[Thamilton1233]

Awesome thanks for the tips!

[Mike Shepherd]

So was it rockfall or an avalanche, or both? Based on posts here sounds like rockfall. If 6 people were caught in an avalanche and then someone here on the forums saw them still down climbing the couloir it must have been a pretty small avalanche.

[Aphelion]

So was it rockfall or an avalanche, or both? Based on posts here sounds like rockfall. If 6 people were caught in an avalanche and then someone here on the forums saw them still down climbing the couloir it must have been a pretty small avalanche.

CAIC thinks it was rockfall, and that's consistent with the one injury we heard of/saw. But it was relatively late in the morning, and the base of Dead Dog is pretty much nothing but fallen rocks and wet slide debris, so could have been both.

[Alpine Rescue Team]

The Alpine Rescue Team was first paged at 09:00 today. Initial reports from multiple Reporting Parties that called 911 and used their Garmin inReach device was that there were 6 parties involved and that 2 were seriously injured and one was still partially buried. After sorting things out with the multiple Reporting Parties, the Clear Creek County dispatch found out that there were 5 people involved in this incident and 2 may have possible severe injuries. Nineteen members of the Alpine Rescue Team, ten members of the Summit County Rescue Group were deployed along with two FFL helicopters. Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office, EMS and Fire also responded to this incident. Lifeguard 2 was able to fly to the scene and were able to get an assessment of the 5 parties involved. The injuries were determined to be minor and the parties were able to walk out on their own. Yesterday the Alpine Rescue Team spent 9 hours evacuating an injured skier who had fallen skiing down the Tuning Fork Couloir on the north side of Torrey's peak.

[Tim A]

The CAIC’s summary:

https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/acc/ ... &accfm=rep


With the warm overnight temps, regular afternoon rain and mostly overcast night skies, I’ve been sticking to mellow routes this week though I am a bit envious of people finding snow routes in good condition and getting after it. Looks like cooler temperatures and clear skies are coming later this week at least briefly.

Thanks to all the SAR teams who are about to start their busy season.

[Bean]

Four hours to get from the trailhead to half way up dead dog is really slow. This sort of slow pace among people who identify as mountaineers is something I’ve noticed before, is there something about walking without carrying skis that hinders hiking pace?

[Wildernessjane]

Four hours to get from the trailhead to half way up dead dog is really slow. This sort of slow pace among people who identify as mountaineers is something I’ve noticed before, is there something about walking without carrying skis that hinders hiking pace?

For sure it’s a slow pace but the CAIC report says they were practicing rope travel and running belays for their upcoming trip, which always slows things way down. This would be especially true for a group of six on one rope, which would move even slower than two groups of 3. Who knows, maybe they were also carrying heavy packs for training purposes?

[Eli Watson]

i skied torreys on 6/5, SAR was also out that day in grizzly gulch

dead dog was riddled with avy debris and rocks and gets immediate sun, not surprising there was an accident there with zero freeze

Yeah I was up Emperor on Saturday. Bottom of the couloir at 530 AM, the shady snow was still bulletproof when I topped out at 730. Perfect climbing conditions. The sunny bits that get hit early were almost corn. I was wearing the purple shirt. I thought we had an excellent freeze Friday night after a great week of stable weather and clear nights.

I chatted with the SAR team when I got back to the car at I-70. They said it was a skier who twisted her knee on one of the ski lines.

[SchralpTheGnar]

Sounds like everyone was ok eventually, thankfull, the caic report is a good source, crazy that so much was mobilized for what turns out to be a non event, so much everything these days it’s hard to know what’s going on but 20+ people / helicopters for a non event is concerning because that’s a drain on already strained resources. In the heat of things I get multiple alerts, spot reaches, accident occurred, trigger an initial response and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the sar and first responders to make sense of the situation.

Glad everyone is ok and thanks to sar and the first response for doing what you do

[gb]

Four hours to get from the trailhead to half way up dead dog is really slow. This sort of slow pace among people who identify as mountaineers is something I’ve noticed before, is there something about walking without carrying skis that hinders hiking pace?

Definitely not moving fast, although it sounds like they were practicing with ropes and such. I'm more surprised they took a half hour break right there.

[cottonmountaineering]

i skied torreys on 6/5, SAR was also out that day in grizzly gulch

dead dog was riddled with avy debris and rocks and gets immediate sun, not surprising there was an accident there with zero freeze

Yeah I was up Emperor on Saturday. Bottom of the couloir at 530 AM, the shady snow was still bulletproof when I topped out at 730. Perfect climbing conditions. The sunny bits that get hit early were almost corn. I was wearing the purple shirt. I thought we had an excellent freeze Friday night.

I chatted with the SAR team when I got back to the car at I-70. They said it was a skier who twisted her knee on one of the ski lines.

i might have seen you up there, my buddy and i skied tuning fork and had pretty much perfect conditions, the clear night aided in the freeze on the north side, i think saturday night was cloudy and warm though

[Boggy B]

Despite what a a handful of cooler nights may suggest, no isothermic setup means the underlying snow is still garbage that will turn to slush at the slightest provocation, and highs in the 50s and 60s above 12k should be a huge red flag. An overnight freeze may yield localized good conditions on a given day, but a pattern of warm days and clear nights (not necessarily cold) is required to set up snow conditions that are safe (and enjoyable) to climb when it's this warm. It seems counterintuitive, but this is why in Colorado snow climbs usually aren't great until at least mid June.

https://avalanche.org/avalanche-encyclo ... sothermal/

And unfortunately, late snows seem to have an insulating effect that hinders this setup.