Spearhead Traverse crevasse fall

Skier escapes death after fall down crevasse
Trapped in ice, woman rescued unharmed in B.C.
CATHRYN ATKINSON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
May 8, 2008 at 5:28 AM EDT
A skier near Whistler had a narrow escape on Sunday after falling nine metres down a backcountry crevasse.

The 26-year-old woman, who was with two male friends, was uninjured by her fall but trapped in the ice. The Lower Mainland resident was ski touring through an area called the Spearhead traverse, a popular route of 12 peaks that connect Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.

Whistler Search and Rescue manager Brad Sills said yesterday that the woman fell through a bergschrund, a crevasse that is created by a moving glacier separating from static ice above it.

Such crevasses are deep and can extend all the way to the bedrock.

"Typically, they fill in with snow in the winter and it is a common danger in the spring that they become rotten, the snow that sits on top thins. It's not as strong as it is in the winter," Mr. Sills said.

The woman fell at around 11:30 a.m. and was finally freed at 4 p.m. Whistler SAR arrived at around 2:30 p.m., and took about 90 minutes to extricate the woman. Mr. Sills added that good weather, coupled with the fact that the party alerted SAR by satellite phone, allowing rescuers to get a helicopter in quickly.

"She was in good health, a little cold. We took her to the clinic for a check-up, but she was released soon after," he said.

"It's nice to do a good-ending story. It's prime time to go ski touring, but the people who are doing it need to know the basic rules. The basic mountaineering rule is that whenever you are on a glacier, you should be roped together."

Ski touring is popular from this time of year well into the summer, said Mr. Sills, because the days are longer, brighter and warmer.

He said backcountry skiers traversing this route can easily reach it from the lifts that are still in operation at Whistler.

Mr. Sills, who oversaw the nine-person SAR team on Sunday, said two other ski parties came by and weren't roped up either.

He compared skiers unfavourably with climbers, who he said understand the need to be roped together to arrest the fall of a person who slips into a crevasse.

"The lessons were really hard learned by the mountaineering community through fatal accidents. And I don't think that has been generally acknowledged by the skiing community. The culture of safety is taking a beating," he said. "Climbers are always roped, that's the cardinal rule, and it applies to everybody."

Mr. Sills said that apart from injuries, those who fall into crevasses can succumb to hypothermia.

He said the woman didn't seem to realize her potential peril.

"Had we not been able to access her in a timely fashion, she would have expired," he said. "I don't think she really understood the danger she was in. She was thankful for being rescued, but I don't think she understood in the way the rescue party was concerned about what could have happened."

Thanks for the interesting post.  LOTS of crevasse falls happening lately in the Pacific Northwest.

That's a brutally frank assessment by Brad Sills of the woman's situation and of unroped skiers in general.  I don't think any SAR manager in the USA would ever have the guts (or is it gall?) to make public statements like that.

Thanks for the report Lee. There were a number of solo people heading out the Spearhead last Sunday for a "Spearhead in a day." Any information on exactly where it happened?

Some explanatory statements here by someone in the party

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RT...?cid=al_gam_mostview

Here are the comments from the other person in the party

Ron Klopfer from Vancouver, Canada writes: As a member of this ski party, I'll offer some clarification and comments:
-We were a party of six, without a guide, but with extensive collective ski mountaineering experience
-We were not carrying a satellite phone, but did have a recently-introduced transponder device that proved to be very effective: www.findmespot.com
-Of the dozens of other ski parties I have encountered on this and previous trips on the Spearhead route, I have never seen a group roped together. The crevasse risk on this route is comparatively low. Even SAR staff have told me that they do not rope-up on this route.
-We should have been carrying a rope, even if we weren't using it prophylactically. Our party was trained in crevasse rescue techniques, but those skills are worthless without the required equipment.
-The biggest lesson learned, from my perspective, is to stop and assess/discuss each section of a route as a group. The one open crevasse on this particular glacier would have been apparent had we stopped to inspect the glacier from above before skiing it.
-The secondary take-away is that one should generally ski the fall-line of a glacier, rather than "traversing high" to preserve elevation (as we did). Traversing high dictates that your ski path runs parallel to the bergshrund openings, which are also situated high on the glacier. This increases your odds of a mishap significantly.
-The victim was very well aware indeed of how fortunate she was to come out of this in one piece.

Interestingly, almost every track I've seen on the Spearhead on about 5x doing this route indicates that parties traverse high.

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According to SAR this incident happened at Northeast aspect of Ripsaw Glacier . Lat : 50. 02’. 22.9” Long : 122. 47’. 08.5”

That's very interesting. I've skied this route a few times although I traverse lower then where the incident occurs and its not the place one would expect a slot!

Here's a map showing the location. The rescue spot is a bit skiers left of Ripsaw-Naden col. Ripsaw-naden col is one of the cols that you would hit going downhill if you're doing a Blackcomb - Whistler Spearhead traverse. It's reasonable to conclude that the party was doing a Blackcomb - Whistler Spearhead traverse since the Whistler lifts are shut down right now.

Since the party was at this point, it's reasonable to conclude that it was either a very fast Spearhead-in-a-day party or a multi-day party.




Here's the Ripsaw Glacier - which looks so benign. These shots were taken from last year. The slot might be on picture right. The usual route is to traverse high without skins on the Ripsaw then ski down to Ripsaw-Naden col in picture centre. The incident occurred higher then where the skier in the picture is heading downhill



Here's the same vantage of the Ripsaw Glacier looking to Ripsaw-Naden col. The incident occurred just to the right of the head of the skier in the shot



This shot was taken from 2006 in a low snow year around April. The Ripsaw Glacier is used extensively for heli-skiing and is quite low-angle. The incident occurred just off to the left of the picture

Thanks Lee for adding some great context.

Rules or not, personal judgment is always in play so the extra information on the terrain and route really helps to make accident reports like this a lot more useful.