Avalanche in Huntington Ravine: 3 hurt (Updated Subject line)

Three hurt in an avalanche in Tuckerman Ravine at ~9:30pm this evening. Little other info is available at this point.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130117/NEWS07/130119220

Doug

Oh, do I have a bad feeling about this ...

Mount Washington Observatory are reporting that the avalanche happened in Huntingdon's ravine.

prino said:

Mount Washington Observatory are reporting that the avalanche happened in Huntingdon's ravine.

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URL?

Doug

More info:
http://www.wmur.com/news/nh-news/Se...9664/-/format/rsss_2.0/-/131gxm3/-/index.html

No meaningful info on where--it is simply described as "Mount Washington's most difficult route"...


A blog post (before the accident) suggests that they might be climbing Pinnacle Gully (in Huntington Ravine, just to the left of Central Gully, which in turn is just to the left of the trail). http://www.wmur.com/news/sports/esc...0084/-/format/rsss_2.0/-/3mv4toz/-/index.html

Doug

https://www.facebook.com/MWObs

"We understand that there has been an avalanche in Huntington Ravine, and that the US Forest Service Snow Rangers have been deployed to assess the area. Mount Washington Observatory has not been called upon in any capacity, so unfortunately we are unable to provide any further information at this time. We join with the rest of the White Mountains community in wishing our best to all those involved."

The snow rangers publish a daily avalanche bulletin in season. When today's edition becomes available, possibly this morning depending on the situation, there may be some discussion of this incident. Here's the Avalanche Advisory link. Right now (0704 on Jan. 18), it's displaying yesterday's version, which discusses conditions at the time.

From today's report

One very lucky party was avalanched from the top of Central Gully late in the day as they climbed through this newly deposited soft slab. More details will be posted tonight on our Weekend Update section of our website and on our Search and Rescue page.

From the "Ascents of Honor" Facebook page:

UPDATE: Unfortunately our summit bid was unsuccessful. As we approached the top of Huntington Ravine, a slab avalanche broke loose and swept three of our climbers down to the bottom of the ravine. They were injured, but able to slowly make their way to rescuers, who assisted them off the mountain. The other nine climbers were able to descend and walk out of the ravine on their own power. While this is certainly not the outcome we had hoped for, we are thankful that all in our party are safely off the mountain. We extend a heartfelt thanks to the US Forest Service and local Mountain Rescue Service personnel for their assistance, and look forward to sharing more details after we all get some rest. Thank you all for your support throughout this project!

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So, this was part of a (ok, pardon my terminology) highly-advertised publicity stunt by people who wouldn't otherwise have tried this climb?

Any possibility that the leaders/organizers felt pressure to go on the announced date even if conditions weren't appropriate? Challenger Syndrome?

"... human triggered avalanches are possible"

"Safe travel in avalanche terrain requires training and experience"

Another report also identifying the location as Central Gully (Huntington Ravine): http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130118/NEWS07/130119163

Doug

JCarter said:

"... human triggered avalanches are possible"

"Safe travel in avalanche terrain requires training and experience"

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The report linked in my previous post states that there was an 11-member support team and the party of 12 was roped in teams of 3. There is no info on the skills of the support team--they could have been anything from beginners to certified guides.

That said, 12 people (in 4 teams) is a lot to put in a single gully. The gully isn't very wide and the lower teams are in the line-of-fire for anything knocked off by the upper teams. (Small to medium (eg several liter) chunks of ice are often knocked off by ice climbers.) Teams often wait for those above to completely clear the gully before starting. (None of the accounts say how many teams were in the gully at the time of the accident.)

<speculation>
There is a high probability that one of the climbers triggered the slab avalanche that caught the 3 victims.
</speculation>

Info on Central Gully (rated easy (NEI 1)--depending on the conditions, it is a 45 degree snow climb with up to 1 or 2 pitches of ice.)
http://www.summitpost.org/central-gully/168446
http://www.chauvinguides.com/hunticeguide2.htm

This is a TR of s ski descent, but it has some very nice pics of/in the gully.
http://www.famousinternetskiers.com/trip-reports/07-08/central-gully-huntington-ravine/

Doug

JCarter said:

From the "Ascents of Honor" Facebook page:



So, this was part of a (ok, pardon my terminology) highly-advertised publicity stunt by people who wouldn't otherwise have tried this climb?

Any possibility that the leaders/organizers felt pressure to go on the announced date even if conditions weren't appropriate? Challenger Syndrome?

"... human triggered avalanches are possible"

"Safe travel in avalanche terrain requires training and experience"

Click to expand...

I have to admit I agree with your concerns. Perhaps it is nothing more than a choice of words, and an innocent vocabulary blunder, but the description of this as a 'project' is a bit disconcerting.

"Three Injured in Avalanche in Huntington Ravine

On Thursday January 17, a party of 12 was avalanched in Central Gully of Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington. This party was part of an Ascents of Honor program and included Keith Zeier, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a retired Marine sergeant who lost his leg and suffered a brain injury during a 2006 tour of duty in Iraq and is climbing the mountain with a prosthetic leg. Joining Zeier were eleven support staff.
The group was roped as four teams of three climbers. The US Forest Service received the call about the incident at 5:30 pm and responded. The first Ranger arrived on scene at approximately 6:45pm.
Four US Forest Service Snow Rangers, 17 North Conway Mountain Rescue Service volunteers, an Appalachian Mountain Club volunteer and the Harvard Mountain Club cabin caretaker all responded to the incident. One of the teams of three fell approximately 800 feet and sustained non-life threating injuries. The three individuals, Andy Politz, Jonathon Politz, and Zeier, were transported to the Pinkham Notch parking lot via Forest Service Snowcat to three waiting ambulances at 9:30. The nine remaining group members were assisted by rescuers in steep terrain and were also transported to Pinkham by snowcat. Field operations concluded at 11:30pm.

Each year from December 1st through May 31st, the US Forest Service is the lead agency coordinating all search and rescue missions in the Cutler River Drainage on Mount Washington. The success of these search and rescue missions relies heavily on the consistent and professional assistance of local volunteer search and rescue groups. Lead Snow Ranger Chris Joosen commented, “Although an unfortunate incident the rescue operations went very well. There is great teamwork between the US Forest Service Snow Rangers and volunteers who stay trained and ready to assist in search and rescues incidents, in the ravines, and across the Forest. One of those rescued stated they had never seen a team work that well and efficiently together.”

The White Mountain National Forest operates the Mount Washington Avalanche Center to provide daily safety information and search and rescue services to the public. Although beautiful, the mountains contain many hazards for visitors to be aware of which are reported on www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org by the Forest Service.
Avalanches, icefall, weather, undermined snow, and crevasses can all become objective mountain hazards that create a level of risk. Knowing where they are and when they may be worse can help visitors make better decisions for their own safety. For more information visit the Avalanche Center website."

From the Berlin Daily Sun facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Berlin-Daily-Sun

They just interviewed one of them on the local news. "We're professionals who have climbed all over the world. We knew what we were doing." Ummmm..

Stash said:

They just interviewed one of them on the local news. "We're professionals who have climbed all over the world. We knew what we were doing." Ummmm..

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They may well have technical skills, but I question their knowledge of local conditions on Mt Washington. What happened to them is typical of conditions after a few inches of dry, fluffy powder with prevailing NW winds. Those winds scour about a mile of terrain above treeline, and deposit it on the leeward side. I was in the mountains on Thursday (Carrigain) and as the cold air moved in, it triggered more snow squalls - again, a source for dry powder. These types of conditions load the upper headwalls of Tucks, Huntingtons, etc. We've seen situations/accidents occur like this in the past; and unfortunately, they'll occur in the future.

Why don't climbers just stay out of the leeward ravines until several days after a storm? I mean - it's not rocket science.

I'm thankful no one was seriously hurt, or worse.

They are lucky they'll all get to do this again someday.

They knew what they were getting into, they just didn't bet that Agiocochook would reach out with the fly swatter and slap them yesterday. Well, they did get slapped. They lived to tell the tale, there is a long list of those that have lost that bet.

Notice a few things........ first ..... NH F&G was not involved in any way.

Second.... the USFS brought them down by snowcat... something the F&G doesn't have in place there or anywhere.

Third... I've got a pretty good idea that Chris Joosen and MORE than a few others were on alert for the possibility of trouble. Incident called at 5:30 PM and the first three injured loaded into ambulances @ PNVC @ 9:30. EVERYONE else off the mountain by 11:30 including 23 rescue personnel. Mountain Rescue Services took a cold call on this ??????

I've got bells jingling on one leg.

Breeze

From the Snow Ranger report:

"Four rope teams of 3 climbers made their way close to the top of Central Gully, a grade 2 snow and ice climb. The upper team triggered a small avalanche (R2 D1.5) which swept 3 of the 4 teams off their feet and down the 45-50 degree slope. The rope of one of the teams hooked on a rock protruding from the snow, one team was stopped by a really fortunate self-arrest while the third team slid over the ice bulge, fortuitously stopping just before the boulder field. The forth team, which triggered the avalanche near the top of the gully was the only team to avoid a sliding fall. The team that took the longest fall was in the center of the gully while the others were along the rock face on the left. No snow anchors were in place and some, if not all, parties where moving simultaneously while roped up, though it isn’t entirely clear how many elected to use this technique. Rock protection is notoriously difficult to find due to the compact nature of the stone. This type of multi casualty incident has happened here before, as well as in other ranges in similar terrain, and taxes and potentially depletes available rescue resources. Fortunately, the injuries this party sustained were relatively minor compared to those who have taken this fall in the past allowing rescue teams to stabilize the situation and evacuate the party via the Forest Service snow tractor."

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Glad everyone made it out OK. Sounds like they were pretty lucky.

Tim, I do believe this could ( should????) have been called a " community supported climb", i.e assistance was in place, with a lot of forethought. Certainly not a situation where 12 unknowns arrived unannounced and proceeded to do their thing. This group had a reservation at MWOBS for the Thursday overnight, with down-bound travel via Auto Road, had been ice climbing in Crawford Notch, skiing at Wildcat, had a personal and F2F briefing at Harvard Cabin with USFS snow rangers, and had planned a wrap-up party for tonight ( Friday) at the Shannon Door Pub in Jackson.

What we are seeing in the news media ( unless you hunt for it online, start with WMUR) makes it sound quite different.

Eyes Open Productions. On film.

what was the word used in another thread about rescue issues?? OPTICS????????

Yeah, this is optics.

Breeze

Here are a couple of links to stories about this climb.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/01/ap-three-hikers-hurt-avalance-new-hampshire-011813/
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130117/NEWS07/130119220

JCarter said:

So, this was part of a (ok, pardon my terminology) highly-advertised publicity stunt by people who wouldn't otherwise have tried this climb?

Any possibility that the leaders/organizers felt pressure to go on the announced date even if conditions weren't appropriate? Challenger Syndrome?

Click to expand...

Summit fever appears in many guises. Sometimes it motivates people to take unjustifiable risks.


At least some of the climbers were very experienced (for instance, Google "Andy Politz") and the reports indicate that they talked to the local snow rangers before going. I presume they judged the risks to be acceptable.

Remember that all technical climbing involves taking calculated risks and any risk carries the possibility of an accident. Most of us only hear about it when an accident occurs.


The accident was caused by a slab avalanche. (I have seen no reports as to whether it was naturally triggered or triggered by one of the climbers.) Slabs often form on leeward slopes and are common on the upper headwalls of both Huntington and Tuckerman Ravines.

Doug