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JACKSON, Wyo. — The ski industry, U.S. Forest Service and ski patrol associations in coming months will be examining closely the circumstances of avalanches that have killed three skiers and slammed into a restaurant inside ski areas during December.
The three skiers died at Utah’s Snowbird, California’s Squaw Valley and Wyoming’s Jackson Hole.
Other non-fatal slides have caught skiers or ski patrollers at Jackson Hole, and also California’s Mammoth and Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin and Vail ski areas.
Doug Abromeit, director of the Forest Service National Avalanche Center in Ketchum, Idaho, called the avalanche fatalities and close calls “unprecedented” in developed ski areas.
“We have never seen a series of incidents (like those that occurred) inbounds in the last couple of weeks,” he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide in late December.
“It’s been a crazy, crazy year,” he added.
In the case of the three fatalities, ski patrollers had used hand-thrown charges or howitzers without success on the slopes that ultimately failed. The slopes all had been skied by others before they let loose.
“The ski patrollers have been out there pounding it, trying to make it safe,” Abromeit said. “I wouldn’t call it a wake-up call, because I don’t think anybody has been asleep. These were an extraordinary string of events.”
“Many hours” will be spent trying to sort out what happened, he said.
“It may just be coincidence, or there may be some trend that we can learn from all this. When you think of the millions of people that visit ski areas each year, the odds of getting caught in an avalanche are pretty miniscule.”
But the potential for avalanche that partially buried five ski patrollers at the on-mountain Bridge Restaurant at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort was well-known. One of the patrollers was buried to his neck; he was dug out by Jerry Blann, president of the resort.
The slide also tore the railing and glass shields off the restaurant deck, burst through the doors and windows, and piled snow eight feet deep inside. Outside the building, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide, the debris was up to 30 feet high.
Another major slide had occurred in the same area in 1986, after storms left 117 inches of snow in 11 days. Later, in 1998, when the restaurant was being considered, the Forest Service predicted the restaurant building would stand a 22 percent chance of being hit by an avalanche of the same severity during the building’s projected 25-year design life.
Art Mears, an avalanche expert from Gunnison, had made several suggestions to mitigate avalanche danger to the restaurant, including construction of a major deflection berm.
But resort officials, say the newspaper, rejected the berm, saying it would be an eyesore and create environmental problems.
Blann said the building did exactly as it was supposed to do, protecting the people within.
“Snow is an extremely complicated medium,” Abromeit told the newspaper. “Ski patrols can reduce the risk to almost zero, but they can’t eliminate it.”
The three skiers died at Utah’s Snowbird, California’s Squaw Valley and Wyoming’s Jackson Hole.
Other non-fatal slides have caught skiers or ski patrollers at Jackson Hole, and also California’s Mammoth and Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin and Vail ski areas.
Doug Abromeit, director of the Forest Service National Avalanche Center in Ketchum, Idaho, called the avalanche fatalities and close calls “unprecedented” in developed ski areas.
“We have never seen a series of incidents (like those that occurred) inbounds in the last couple of weeks,” he told the Jackson Hole News & Guide in late December.
“It’s been a crazy, crazy year,” he added.
In the case of the three fatalities, ski patrollers had used hand-thrown charges or howitzers without success on the slopes that ultimately failed. The slopes all had been skied by others before they let loose.
“The ski patrollers have been out there pounding it, trying to make it safe,” Abromeit said. “I wouldn’t call it a wake-up call, because I don’t think anybody has been asleep. These were an extraordinary string of events.”
“Many hours” will be spent trying to sort out what happened, he said.
“It may just be coincidence, or there may be some trend that we can learn from all this. When you think of the millions of people that visit ski areas each year, the odds of getting caught in an avalanche are pretty miniscule.”
But the potential for avalanche that partially buried five ski patrollers at the on-mountain Bridge Restaurant at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort was well-known. One of the patrollers was buried to his neck; he was dug out by Jerry Blann, president of the resort.
The slide also tore the railing and glass shields off the restaurant deck, burst through the doors and windows, and piled snow eight feet deep inside. Outside the building, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide, the debris was up to 30 feet high.
Another major slide had occurred in the same area in 1986, after storms left 117 inches of snow in 11 days. Later, in 1998, when the restaurant was being considered, the Forest Service predicted the restaurant building would stand a 22 percent chance of being hit by an avalanche of the same severity during the building’s projected 25-year design life.
Art Mears, an avalanche expert from Gunnison, had made several suggestions to mitigate avalanche danger to the restaurant, including construction of a major deflection berm.
But resort officials, say the newspaper, rejected the berm, saying it would be an eyesore and create environmental problems.
Blann said the building did exactly as it was supposed to do, protecting the people within.
“Snow is an extremely complicated medium,” Abromeit told the newspaper. “Ski patrols can reduce the risk to almost zero, but they can’t eliminate it.”
Chileans find no work once they hit ski shop
AVON — The common joke used to be that all it took to get a job in a ski town was the ability to breathe. Just a year ago, the story was still of figuring out new ways to recruit seasonal employees.How times have changed. The Vail Daily reports of four Chilean college students who thought they would spend their summer working at a ski shop in Beaver Creek. They would get to travel, learn better English, and ski. But when they arrived, there were no jobs to be had — not even the reduced hours that had been mentioned at some point.
The newspaper suggests that the plight of the four Chileans may by no means be unique. One restaurant in Avon reports up to 50 job applicants a day, many of them immigrants with student J-1 visas. However, not all of the immigrants come with a clear understanding that they had jobs.
Kelly Ladyga, spokeswoman for Vail Resort, said the company does its own recruiting instead of relying upon independent agencies. The ski company has hired 300 people at its five ski areas in the West.
Crested Butte happy to be in the slow lane
CRESTED BUTTE — By all accounts, the number of speeders in Crested Butte are few. Most people drive the posted 15 mph on Crested Butte’s streets, where pedestrians, bicycles (even in winter) and cars are all found. Some cars may even be going 18 mph to 20 mph, observed one public official.
“I love this town,” said Mayor Alan Bernholz. “It’s nice to have a discussion about traffic calming where people are doing 18 miles per hour. It’s a great town.”
Sun Valley Co. plans gondola to restaurant
KETCHUM, Idaho — The Sun Valley Co. has announced it will install a new gondola this summer on Bald Mountain. The eight-passenger gondola will provide day and night, winter and summer, transportation from the base area at Warm Springs to an on-mountain restaurant called Roadhouse.
The gondola, says the Idaho Mountain Express, was originally to have been installed last summer.
