Cedar Creek Drainage

So what do people think about this?:

3/4/17 Cedar Creek Drainage, Washington Pass area, North Cascades, WA

A guided group was heli-skiing and the victim triggered a large soft slab in the Cedar Creek Drainage toward the end of the day. The slope broke above the guide, who skied the slope first, sweeping him downward. The clients searched and rescued the victim who was fully buried (critical) and sustained a head injury. The avalanche was 100 meters wide with a crown depth of 60-80 cm and ran approx. 200 vertical meters. The slide released on a layer of decomposing fragments and facets above the February 15th crust.

One of the reasons why I left WA this year for March madness is I could tell months ago that this go round would be extremely unstable.

I'm really hoping that the people that I've toured w/in the past don't get caught, let alone anyone else.

Some good points.
Unfortunately a lot of your good points get lost to your oft pompous attitude:

i would like clients to understand that they are hiring people to risk their lives  so that clients can obtain their mountain goals and pump up their facebook ego's.

You (egotistically) claim to know why people hire guides... Nobody can know that. God maybe... if there is one. You seem to have no problem positioning yourself as god. A rather conceited and insulting god at that... people hiring guides to "pump up their facebook ego's."

If you're serious about your stated endeavour to keep people safe nobody does a better job of undermining that than you.

dude- you're cracking me up. my friends too i'm sure.

''ho ho ho he he ha ha ha, see how the run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly, i'm crying'' Lennon-McCartney

and finally, we all need to step up our game.

like Charlie Manson

You've been carrying the water bucket pretty well..don't start putting h
oles in it.

I'm not covering up my piss...that way if i have a senior moment the yellow will hopefully keep me from steppinig in it on my next lap...sorry

maybe all bc travellers should have minimum certification requirements and obtain permits to travel for the season.

this is a joke, right?  antithesis of personal responsibility and spirit of exploration

Not gunna do it...gotta see yellow...

Manson preached love too... maybe even the beauty of art... it don't mean much sometimes.
I'll procure my avalanche education elsewhere thank you very much. Got no use for that self righteous tone.

You do make some good points. I'll be there when you're fighting the good fight. But not when you're beatin' the drum into the ground.



Mike Cheney: I think we all make mistakes sometime.

Mike..

I think it was pretty awesome that the clients where skilled enough for a successful recovery. Guiding is a dangerous job with a lot of responsibility, for little $$$. Work or play in a dynamic environment, eventually something will go wrong. So glad it was just a harsh learning experience. This would be the guide I would think would be the safest to get out with now. Fresh off a full burial, he'll be on his game.

But how did you "know" it was going to be unstable months away? NWAC only can predict two days out. The layer everything is happening on didn't occur until Valentine's day. Even then, it's just highly considerable. Not judging anyone, but still plenty of safe fun riding to be had. Except for this rain thing.. overall been pretty darn good this winter.

Thanks, you stay safe too.

Well said Ale! Part of the reason to hire a guide is to have them go first, especially when skiing potentially high risk terrain. And, relying on client rescue (initially) is also factored into the calculus. Freeski likes to insinuate that there is a coverup regarding the risk of heli skiing and guided skiing in general, but if you read their liability waiver forms, there is no whitewashing of risk. It's also worth noting that they (NCH and NCMG) have a terrific safety record, over a long operating history. The folks that own and work at these operations are Valley locals, who as far as I can tell (largely based on the jalopy sleds they use), aren't millionaires. They're doing it for the love of the mountains, and probably the love of sharing the experience as well. Not sure how they earned Freeski's enmity, but I'm guessing it has something to do with ignoring all of his "free advice" over the years.

You may want to re-think your pov and how bias plays a role in people's reasoning.

if you want to debate, fine, but use your intellect to debate the points and not to personally attack the person making those points.

You are the one stating that clients hire guides simply to pump up their egos on their facebook pages.

Maybe some of them do, just as certainly that many of them have a whole slew of other reasons for hiring a guide. For you to reduce the motivation of all guided clients down to pumping up their egos on their facebook pages is insulting... you are personally attacking all clients who hire a guide.

There's a lot of that tonality in your writings... and if your stated goal is to communicate avalanche safety, pissing off whole communities of backcountry users is not serving your purpose very well.

Maybe you don't even realize you are doing this...


As for bias playing a role in people's reasoning (in regards to safely navigating avalanche terrain), I completely agree. I never disagreed.

I think you totally misunderstood my comment, hopefully this one clears it up.


as for -

i gave your first attack some consideration in the hope that it would help, guess not.

You guessed right.

If

dude- you're cracking me up. my friends too i'm sure.
ho ho ho he he ha ha ha, see how the run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly, i'm crying

is your idea of a considered response, there's really no need for further discussion.


_____________

Thank you Scott for your well considered response.
I too admired that the clients were skilled enough for a successful recovery.

However, not sure though that all of the near-misses are on the public record and let's not forget, a friend of mine, could have been killed last year when an ncmg guide/owner, doing avy control work with a client, ski cut an avy down on my friend.

my friend insisted that report be filed.

but i'm not talking specifically about those companies. the industry safety record as a whole is poor and in the case of that recent eastern oregon accident,  multiple deaths and injuries in the same avy.

A couple questions if you don't mind, why was your friend hanging out in a slide path and was he visible to the guide above him? Have you ever done a ski cut in the bc?

"that recent eastern oregon accident", do you mean the Cornucopia Peak avalanche with the guided group from WAH? The fatalities and burials occurred because some of the guests didn't follow the lead guide's directions if I recall.

And you think ego doesn't drive that nonsense? And it pisses you off when i mention it does.? Wow. 

I'm saying that your bias is effecting your posts.

I have no interest in being trolled. You keep putting words in my mouth and ascribing emotions that I simply do not feel. And then insinuating that I have a bias.

I've got no horse in this race.  I've never hired a guide and I'm not on Facebook. I've never said that ego and bias have no role in decision making.  And yet you keep insisting that I do.

The only point I'm making (from my first post to this one) is that it is bizarre to me that you continually alienate whole groups of backcountry travelers while stating that your goal is to communicate avalanche safety.

Seems to me you and your message would be a lot more effective if you win people over instead of alienating them.


I get that's not something you want to hear, so go ahead and make up whatever strawman diversions you want and have at it...
I'm outta here.

I'm outta here.

well, almost

I shouldn't really need to be explaining this since in this day and age anyone can quickly type "Charlie Manson Beatles" in their search engine and get a quick rundown, but you seemed genuinely confused so...

in regards to my "like Charlie Manson" reply to your "...ho ho ho he he ha ha ha, see how the run like pigs from a gun..." comment, it's the first thing that flashed across my mind when I read your response. Charlie was infamous for quoting Beatles lyrics to suit his own ends.
Knee Jerk Americana... sorry, you walked right into that one. Good to know your history as you like to say.



apologies Mike, for thread deflection

The above comments on guides in avalanche terrain remind me of a story from John Roskelley's Stories Off The Wall regarding his friend Kim Momb, who was one of the first to successfully ascend the Kangshung Face on Everest, and who Roskelley had a huge amount of respect for, as a climber and as a person.

"Kim Momb worked as a heli-ski guide during the winter months in the Interior Ranges of British Columbia. The Interior Ranges had a lot of snow that year--more than usual. But what bothered me was a recent change in the weather. It was warm and drizzling. The current weather and the preceeding weeks of snow accumulation matched the conditions several years earlier when Willi Unsoeld was buried by an avalanche and killed on Mount Rainier.

As Momb and I walked in the rain toward our cars, I said good-bye. 'Give me a call next time you're in town, Kim. And be careful. Avalanche conditions should be terrible this week.'

Momb died two days later. He and two clients, one who also died, were swept into the trees by a slab avalanche while skiing a remote mountain slope in British Columbia."

Guides aren't perfect, and can exercise bad judgment just like anyone else. It's up to the individual to be educated and make the go/no go call for themselves based on the available evidence.

And these discussions would be a lot more valuable if people on this site refrained from engaging in pissing matches and personal attacks, and stuck to the relevant facts.

1st of all I wrote this late at night (2am+ AKST) after reading the NWAC accident reports from 5 Feb to 5 March... late at night - somewhat reacting to what I read. I wasn't trying to call anyone or organization out ... really I was fishing for information...

Mike..

I think it was pretty awesome that the clients where skilled enough for a successful recovery.  Guiding is a dangerous job with a lot of responsibility, for little $$$. Work or play in a dynamic environment, eventually something will go wrong. So glad it was just a harsh learning experience. This would be the guide I would think would be the safest to get out with now. Fresh off a full burial, he'll be on his game.

But how did you "know" it was going to be unstable months away? NWAC only can predict two days out.  The layer everything is happening on didn't occur until Valentine's day. Even then, it's just highly considerable. Not judging anyone, but still plenty of safe fun riding to be had. Except for this rain thing.. overall been pretty darn good this winter.

Thanks, you stay safe too.

I have had some guide experience from NCMG... I have a lot of respect for them... They are great guides and have taught some of my friends lots of skills and taken them on tours they are pretty happy with. I think it's great that the clients had the skills to do a rescue - could very well be that they taught the rescuers Avy 1+

As far as me "...know..." ing about this season. I didn't... nobody knows the future. My crystal ball is foggy.

In an unscientific manner I viewed the way the snow came down this year... maritime snow over continental then crusts then more continental then maritime, upside down, right side up, at times... then I started focusing on other plans that would take me out of the area. I've been fortunate to ride out of the area a lot the prior 3 winters... I get back in the spring and notice things about who's touring where, I notice things about people that I've been touring with...

Imho it seems like there are way more people in the last 5 years headed out relying on airbags & magic boxes, with the supposition that gear will save them and less analyzing the terrain and conditions in the moment...

I don't want to be caught in a slide triggered by people like this (it happened in-bounds in the S back at Crystal to a friend last year - people didn't even notice what they did - they buried him)... I really don't want to trigger a slide on anyone else, ever.

Guides aren't perfect, and can exercise bad judgment just like anyone else.  It's up to the individual to be educated and make the go/no go call for themselves based on the available evidence.

And these discussions would be a lot more valuable if people on this site refrained from engaging in pissing matches and personal attacks, and stuck to the relevant facts.

I like the story Eric relayed - it's totally applicable to this situation.

I also like what I quoted from Eric above... total truth... that's it.